A group of anime reaction YouTubers, including creator Nicholas Light, say they have been unfairly hit with mass copyright strikes from a company called Remove Your Media, which enforces takedowns on behalf of clients such as Viz Media and Crunchyroll. Light briefly feared his 1.3 million-subscriber channel would be deleted after receiving over a dozen strikes that temporarily took down more than 60 of his videos, before YouTube reversed the strikes and confirmed his channel was safe. The episode has sparked a wider row over whether reaction content featuring altered or blurred anime clips qualifies as fair use.

Remove Your Media's legal representative, Evan F. Stone, defended the takedowns, saying the company reports thousands of allegedly infringing links daily, some flagged directly by copyright holders and others found through searches. He argued that many reaction videos show copyrighted works in full, undermine paywalled content, and are watched by some viewers as a substitute for licensed versions, meaning they are not sufficiently transformative to count as fair use. Creators dispute this, insisting their commentary-style videos are legitimate and that the enforcement campaign has been indiscriminate and damaging to their livelihoods.