The pages of these channels are now unavailable, and their replacement with a standard blocking message became the final chord after YouTube had previously temporarily disabled monetization. This decision followed an investigation into the spread of misinformation through generative AI. After the introduction of labels such as "fan trailer" and "parody," monetization was restored; however, the labels were later removed, leading to the final blocking for violating rules related to spam and misinformation. As revealed by an investigation by Deadline, the channels of Screen Culture combined official footage with AI generation, creating misleading trailers for various franchises.
The founder of Screen Culture, Nihil P. Chaudhary, admitted that his team of twelve editors used YouTube algorithms to release fake trailers before the official versions appeared. For example, they created 23 versions of the trailer for "Fantastic Four," some of which appeared above the official trailer in search results.
The investigation also found that several Hollywood studios, including Warner Bros Discovery and Sony, instead of protecting their copyrights, actually asked YouTube to redirect advertising revenue from these videos to them. Disney, in turn, sent a request to Google demanding an end to the mass copyright infringement.
