Disney forces YouTube to remove AI videos featuring its characters
The removals signal that studios are tightening control as AI makes copyright violations faster and harder to detect.
Google has started removing AI-generated videos featuring Disney characters from YouTube after receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Disney. Dozens of videos using characters like Mickey Mouse, Deadpool, Moana, and Star Wars figures were taken down in recent days, marking one of the clearest enforcement actions yet against AI-generated video content on the platform.
Disney’s complaint wasn't limited to users uploading unauthorized clips. In its letter, the company also raised concerns about how Google trains its own AI models, arguing that copyrighted movies and shows may have been used to train tools like Veo and Nano Banana without permission. Google hasn't publicly confirmed those claims.
This move comes as AI video tools have made it increasingly easy to generate content that looks official, even when it isn’t. On YouTube, short clips featuring well-known characters have been spreading rapidly, often blurring the line between fan edits, parody, and outright infringement. Until now, many of these videos stayed up long enough to reach large audiences before any action was taken.
Louis Eriakha
What changed this week is enforcement. Major studios are no longer treating AI video as a novelty problem. They're treating it as a rights and ownership issue, and they're acting faster. Disney’s takedown request signals that studios expect platforms to respond quickly when AI tools are used to recreate protected characters without approval.
This isn't Disney’s first clash with AI platforms. The company has previously taken action against services like Character.AI and is currently suing image generators such as Midjourney and Hailuo, arguing that their outputs closely replicate Disney’s protected characters and worlds. Across these cases, Disney’s position has been consistent: AI tools cross a line when they reproduce copyrighted material without authorization.
At the same time, Disney isn't rejecting AI outright. Just days after the YouTube removals, the company announced a partnership with OpenAI that allows Disney characters to appear inside tools like Sora and ChatGPT, and will bring AI-generated shorts made with Sora to Disney+. The distinction Disney is drawing isn't about the technology itself, but about control. AI use is acceptable when it is licensed and supervised. It is not when it happens without permission.
Emmanuel Umahi
For Google, the situation highlights a growing challenge. YouTube receives millions of uploads every day, and AI makes it easier than ever to produce polished, convincing content at scale. Responding to takedown requests addresses immediate legal pressure, but it also exposes the limits of reactive moderation in an era where AI can generate high-quality video in seconds.
The bigger shift is now clear. The debate around AI video is moving away from realism and novelty toward ownership and enforcement. As studios push harder and platforms respond faster, the long-standing “upload first, deal with it later” culture is starting to break down. For creators and AI companies alike, the message is becoming harder to ignore: using famous characters without approval is no longer something that slips through quietly.
