There's no shortage of tools to get around Windows 11's installation nonsense, and that's for good reason. Some PCs can't even run the OS without tweaking, and potential users may want to avoid having to make a Microsoft account just to use their own rig. Recent reports suggest YouTube might be cracking down on content encouraging these workarounds, though.
YouTuber CyberCPU Tech has recently shared that they've had two videos removed in two days (via Tom's Hardware). Both of those videos are reportedly about ways to bypass Windows 11 requirements. One was a tutorial on how to install Windows 11 without a Microsoft account. The other was on how to install the latest version of Windows on unsupported hardware.
CyberCPU Tech says that both were taken down due to automated systems, but both were denied appeals. The first appeal was denied after just 45 minutes, and the second after just five.
In a previous video, he said that he had spoken to a support specialist (whom he believes could be AI) who said the Windows 11 videos promote "behaviour that encourages dangerous or illegal activities that risk serious physical harm or death." Naturally, we have to take the reported words of a support specialist with a grain of salt, and YouTube is an entity that doesn't always reveal specific reasons for its decisions.
The second appeal resulted in the following response: "Again, the warning strike you received was issued based on a violation of Harmful or Dangerous Content which prohibits content that encourages or promotes behavior that encourages dangerous or illegal activities that risk serious physical harm or death"
YouTube's appeals system is shrouded to some extent, with very few understanding the exact methodology. That being said, in many cases, a human review is part of the process. As answered in Google's YouTube Help section, "When our systems have a high degree of confidence that content is violative, they may make an automated decision. However, in the majority of cases, our automated systems will simply flag content to a trained human reviewer for evaluation before any action is taken."
We have reached out to YouTube to try and clarify what was taken down and why.
CyberCPU Tech says, "I had stated before that I didn't think Microsoft had anything to do with it. I don't believe that anymore. In fact, I believe they are entirely responsible for this." Despite this, there are still videos on YouTube showing how to get around hardware requirements, so whatever is going wrong here doesn't appear to be a blanket rule on the video-sharing platform.
One of the main issues here appears to be how tech YouTubers are to know which videos are safe to make. In the video following this, CyberCPU says, "I just don't know how tech channels on YouTube can survive when we have no idea what topics we can make videos on."
If you are familiar with YouTube, you will likely spot this as a bit of a trend. Many creators self-censor parts of their videos they believe could cause them problems or limit reach, and YouTube isn't always upfront about the specific elements that cause problems.
As such, we only have guesswork and CyberCPU Tech's word to go on here, but it's still a worrying trend to see video tutorials like these taken down, even if it's purely being done by YouTube's AI bots.
As always, I'd encourage checking out Rufus or working around Microsoft account requirements, should that be how you want to run your rig. After all, there are still plenty of tools widely available to customise your PC, even if Microsoft has cracked down on some of them this year.
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