X/HoldMyDualShockYouTube’s AI has claimed another victim after a creator’s stream was shut down when a microphone was misidentified as a firearm.
Throughout the end of 2025, creators across the platform warned of widespread AI-driven enforcement mistakes.
Tech creator Enderman said multiple channels with hundreds of thousands of subscribers were terminated overnight, claiming the decisions were made entirely by automated systems with no human review.
In another viral case, SpooknJukes had his video restricted after his laugh was marked as “graphic content” and it wasn’t until he removed his laugh from the footage that his video could be fully monetized again.
VTuber Ember Paradox also revealed that her video reacting to Brandon Herrera’s ‘Darwin Awards’ video was removed for not following the site’s “child safety policy” while the original was allowed to stay up.
Now, yet another creator is calling out YouTube for taking their livestream offline for a rather absurd error.
YouTube mistakes microphone for firearm
On December 10, creators at HoldMyDualShock were live discussing Supergirl, Disney and other news in pop culture when their stream was suddenly pulled.
“Youtube’s AI falsely flagged us,” they replied to a viewer on X.
Following this, HoldMyDualShock revealed exactly why they had been taken down: a microphone.
“PLEASE ADDRESS THIS. Our livestream was taken down for holding a ‘firearm’… its a microphone,” they blasted, tagging YouTube Support in the process.
A screenshot of an email the creators received from YouTube explained that the platform believed their content violated its firearm policy.
According to YouTube, content that shows someone live streaming while holding, handling, or transporting a firearm isn’t allowed, and violations could result in losing the ability to stream.
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“We may terminate your channel or account for repeated violations of the Community Guidelines or Terms of Service. We may also terminate your channel or account after a single case of severe abuse, or when the channel is dedicated to a policy violation,” YouTube’s policies state.
YouTube says it’s investigating the situation and HoldMyDualShock hasn’t addressed the flag further on social media, but this is just the latest in a series of bizarre moderation incidents plaguing the platform.
The Google-owned site also defended terminating 12 million channels from January – September 2025, noting that 20.5M channels were terminated in Q4 2023 alone.
HoldMyDualShock isn’t the only victim of AI misidentifying a regular object as a weapon. Earlier this year, armed officers swarmed a 16-year-old student outside Kenwood High School in Baltimore when an AI gun detection system falsely flagged a Doritos bag as a firearm.
In another case, a Florida middle school was briefly placed in lockdown after an AI detection system misidentified a student holding a clarinet as a dangerous weapon.