A YouTube user was able to get 1.5M views by uploading a full copy of Pixar’s WALL-E before the video platform finally took action, but by then, it was too late.
Like most media platforms, YouTube has strict rules about copyrighted material being uploaded, but viewers were baffled at how a full version of WALL-E went undetected for days.
Originally uploaded on August 22, a user by the name of Jupiter uploaded the animated Disney classic to YouTube with the not-so-sneaky title of ‘Wall E Full Movie!’
HOW DID THEY MANAGE TO BYPASS YOUTUBE'S CONTENT ID?! 👀 pic.twitter.com/O2ZncHwaa1
— Bob Pony (@TheBobPony) August 25, 2024
Three days later, X user TheBobPony posted a screenshot of the film on YouTube, shocked by how the film bypassed the site’s content ID and wasn’t flagged for copyright infringement. The screenshot also showed that the movie had been viewed 1.4M times by then.
A week after the original upload, YouTube finally responded to the post, confirming that it was aware of the video. “Jumping in here: thanks for flagging this. the vid has now been taken down,” TeamYouTube said.
@TheBobPony jumping in here: thanks for flagging this. the vid has now been taken down
— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) August 27, 2024
However, TheBobPony shot down the notion that YouTube had removed the WALL-E upload, revealing that the video was simply made private. The user also denied reporting the Disney film to the Google-owned company.
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YouTube didn’t take down the video, the uploader did! pic.twitter.com/W6GZvMqvBT
— Bob Pony (@TheBobPony) August 27, 2024
“Others claimed I’ve reported to YouTube. I did not. To be honest, that video was bound to be taken down eventually, especially with the amount of views it has got. I’ve originally made this tweet just to just show the wildest thing I’ve seen on YouTube,” TheBobPony explained.
“Also, I didn’t even mention any of YouTube’s official accounts in this nor DM’d them about it. Some social media manager accidentally misworded it.”
It’s quite interesting to see long it took YouTube to respond to WALL-E being available considering the platform normally reacts swiftly to remove other types of content.
For instance, earlier this month, the site terminated Twitch star Amouranth’s ASMR channel for “sexual content” even though the streamer denies doing anything inappropriate in the video that got her banned.