Character.AI Confirms Mass Deletion of Fandom Characters, Says They're Not Coming Back

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Sorry, fandoms: it sounds like your favorite Character.AI bots aren't coming back.

Character.AI Confirms Mass Removal of Fandom Characters

The embattled AI companion company Character.AI confirmed to Quisa that it has removed a large number of characters from its platform. The decision stems from adherence to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and broader copyright law. The company did not specify whether the deletions were proactive or triggered by requests from intellectual property rights holders.

Character.AI Confirms Mass Deletion of Fandom Characters, Says They're Not Coming Back As we reported yesterday, Character.AI users took to social media in large numbers this week to protest the sudden deletion of chatbots based on characters from the beloved "Harry Potter" series. Further investigation revealed that other chatbots tied to Warner Bros. Discovery properties had also vanished. These included characters from the HBO hit "Game of Thrones," the DC Universe, and even "Looney Tunes" cartoons featuring Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck.

Popular Bots Disappear Overnight

Many of the removed AI bots once attracted thousands — and in some cases millions — of user chats, highlighting their popularity within the platform's fandom-driven community.

Character.AI Confirms Mass Deletion of Fandom Characters, Says They're Not Coming Back We asked Character.AI about the Potterverse erasure and whether Warner Bros. Discovery had requested the removal of AI chatbot characters based on copyrighted material. The company did not address the latter question directly. Instead, it issued an emailed statement through a crisis PR firm confirming that a "group of characters" had recently been removed after being deemed "violative" of copyright law or the company's own policies:

We conduct proactive detection and moderation of user-created Characters, including using industry-standard and custom blocklists that are regularly updated. We proactively, and in response to user reports, remove Characters that violate our Terms of Service. We also adhere to the DMCA requirements and take swift action to remove reported Characters that violate copyright law or our policies.

Users may notice that we’ve recently removed a group of Characters that have been flagged as violative and these will be added to our custom blocklists moving forward.

We also reached out to Warner Bros. Discovery but have yet to receive a response.

Patchy Enforcement and User Workarounds

Character.AI Confirms Mass Deletion of Fandom Characters, Says They're Not Coming Back The removals have been inconsistent. For example, while bots named "Sirius Black" — a fan-favorite "Harry Potter" character — have largely disappeared, "Sirius Orion Black" remains active. Similarly, most "Severus Snape" characters have been removed, yet bots titled "Husband Snape" and "Dad Snape" have so far escaped deletion. Users have discovered creative workarounds, such as referring to Harry Potter simply as "the boy who lived."

The impact on DC Universe characters is equally uneven: "Batman" bots appear hit-or-miss, while "Joker" characters remain plentiful. Looney Tunes deletions are noticeable but incomplete. In contrast, the platform’s once-ubiquitous "Game of Thrones" chatbots have been hit especially hard, particularly those based on Daenerys Targaryen.

Legal Context and Industry Implications

Character.AI Confirms Mass Deletion of Fandom Characters, Says They're Not Coming Back This development is unsurprising given that Character.AI currently faces a lawsuit brought by the family of a 14-year-old teenager in Florida. The teen died by suicide after developing an intense relationship with a Daenerys Targaryen chatbot on the platform.

The Character.AI user base is deeply rooted in fandom culture. The ability to interact with immersive, AI-powered versions of beloved fictional characters has long been central to the platform's appeal. If Warner Bros. Discovery did request the mass removal of its copyrighted characters, it could establish a troubling precedent for Character.AI. Other rights holders of fandom-heavy intellectual property might follow suit.

Ongoing Challenges for Character.AI

It has been a difficult period for the company. In October, shortly before the recent lawsuit was filed, it emerged that someone had created a chatbot based on a murdered teenager without the consent of the family. The character was removed, and Character.AI issued an apology, as first reported by AdWeek. In recent weeks, we have also documented concerning numbers of suicide-, pedophilia-, and eating disorder-themed chatbots freely accessible to users of all ages on the platform.