YouTube Cracks Down on AI-Generated Fake Movie Trailers Viewed by Millions by Banning Two Widely Popular Channels

YouTube has permanently shut down two major channels that were creating fake movie trailers using artificial intelligence, Deadline reports.

The affected channels, Screen Culture and KH Studio, together had over 2 million subscribers and more than a billion views.

Visitors to the channels now see the message: “This page isn’t available. Sorry about that. Try searching for something else.” Screen Culture is based in India, while KH Studio operates out of Georgia.

Earlier this year, YouTube had stopped ads on these channels after Deadline investigated the rise of AI-generated fake trailers across the platform.

The channels were later allowed to monetize again after labeling their videos with terms like “fan trailer,” “parody,” and “concept trailer.” However, in recent months those disclaimers disappeared, raising concerns among the fan-trailer community.

YouTube said the channels violated its spam and misleading metadata rules by returning to their old practices, leading to their termination.

Screen Culture used a mix of official footage and AI-generated images to make trailers that fooled many viewers. Screen Culture founder Nikhil P. Chaudhari explained that his team of about a dozen editors took advantage of YouTube’s algorithm by posting fake trailers early and constantly updating them.

He said, for instance, that by March, Screen Culture had released 23 versions of a trailer for The Fantastic Four: First Steps, some of which ranked higher than the official trailer on YouTube. Recent videos included trailers for HBO’s Harry Potter series and Netflix’s Wednesday.

The investigation also revealed that some Hollywood studios, including Warner Bros. Discovery and Sony, secretly asked YouTube to direct ad revenue from these AI-heavy videos to them, instead of strictly enforcing copyright.

Disney properties were frequently featured on both channels. Last week, Disney sent Google a cease-and-desist letter, claiming that the company’s AI models and services were infringing on Disney’s copyrights on a large scale.

This crackdown shows YouTube is taking stronger action against AI-generated content that misleads viewers and violates platform rules.

It will be interesting to see how other fan-made or AI-created trailers respond to this shift. What do you think about YouTube shutting down these channels? Share your thoughts in the comments.