‘Harmful’ YouTube movies struck down for bypassing Home windows 11 account setup

Microsoft, actually, actually, actually needs you to log in with a full, linked Microsoft account for Home windows 11. It’s important for monitoring person information, feeding individuals advertisements, and usually making your PC expertise far more irritating (although it additionally allows ease-of-life options like OneDrive and account syncing between PCs). Customers have been discovering methods round this requirement for some time, and sharing their outcomes. That is apparently a “dangerous or harmful” act, based on YouTube.

That’s the inescapable conclusion one should draw from the truth that YouTube creator CyberCPU Tech has reportedly had a video on this subject faraway from the platform, and all appeals to YouTube and Google have been denied, based on the creator. The identical factor occurred per week later for a information on set up Home windows 11 25H2 on older, unsupported {hardware}, as reported by Tom’s {Hardware}. Each movies had been flagged by YouTube’s automated system as a violation of its “Dangerous or harmful content material coverage.” Once more, when the creator requested for a guide overview, the enchantment was denied.

YouTube’s coverage outlaws apparent issues like “educational theft” (piracy, defeating retail retailer theft prevention, and so on), “hacking” with the intent to steal data, bypassing cost techniques, and phishing. I haven’t seen the movies, in fact — they’re gone. However so far as I can inform, none of CyberCPU’s directions would have included any of this, assuming it was simply telling individuals set up Home windows 11 on older {hardware} or set up it with no linked person account, one thing Home windows has been capable of do for many years.

Based on the coverage, a channel that will get three such strikes in a 90-day interval could be terminated completely. CyberCPU says that just one strike was utilized to the channel, with the second video included within the unique warning.

The CyberCPU Tech channel is 5 years previous and has 300,000 subscribers, which is taken into account mid-range for the platform, however many creators make a residing from channels that measurement. After taking a category offered by YouTube, the channel will likely be in good standing with the platform by January 2026, and the creator has utilized to get a private consultant assigned from YouTube.

In a follow-up video posted two days in the past, CyberCPU Tech claims that the second enchantment was denied in lower than a minute. Different YouTube creators which have lined related Home windows matters have additionally had their movies eliminated, based on one more video from the channel. Whereas they didn’t initially consider that Microsoft had something to do with the takedowns, as an alternative blaming YouTube’s “AI-enhanced” and notoriously unreliable automated system, they now assume in any other case. “In actual fact, I consider they [Microsoft] are fully accountable for this.”

After outlining various video choices, the creator mentioned, “Are we not allowed to make movies about putting in Home windows on unsupported {hardware} due to some backroom take care of Microsoft? If that’s the case, then Microsoft’s personal web site reveals do it. However superb, we gained’t make these movies anymore, we simply must know the foundations and make them clear.”

No proof for direct Microsoft involvement was provided, although YouTube’s labyrinthian processes for creators aren’t serving to to assuage these fears. Copyright strikes, a separate however simply exploitable system, are sometimes utilized by IP homeowners to close down unfavorable YouTube movies even after they clearly fall beneath honest use. YouTube channel operators must navigate an inscrutable system that gives little to no steering on what particular a part of a video constitutes a violation, whether or not actions had been taken routinely or on account of reviews from viewers or third events, and the way they may keep away from getting strikes sooner or later.

CyberCPU Tech intends to proceed making movies on related Home windows matters, although they could be posted elsewhere. The creator talked about X/Twitter, Floatplane, a tech-focused platform owned and operated by Linus Media Group (proprietor of Linus Tech Suggestions), and Rumble, an alternate video web site made for right-wing influencers. Rumble offers internet hosting for U.S. President Trump’s private social community Fact Social, and is common with influencers who’ve been banned from extra mainstream platforms, like recreation streamer “Dr Disrespect” and alleged human trafficker Andrew Tate.

The creator mentioned that Rumble just isn’t a practical possibility for tech creators who need to transfer off YouTube. “…After two years and tons of of movies, I’ve made a complete of 43 cents.” Non-political content material on YouTube alternate options struggles to keep up viewers (although extra generalized opponents like TikTok and Instagram Reels are faring higher). “However so long as individuals proceed to add to YouTube,” says CyberCPU, “YouTube will nonetheless have the ability to abuse their creators, as a result of they haven’t any incentive to not.”

Whether or not automated or guided by human palms, YouTube’s insurance policies proceed to frustrate most of the creators who make the platform profitable. Common viewers are additionally changing into uninterested in the positioning’s many issues, together with rising costs for ad-free viewing and an enormous inflow of AI slop, a lot of which is offered by YouTube itself. Even because the platform will get measurably worse in many alternative methods and faces growing competitors from providers like TikTok, it stays the de facto residence of user-uploaded video on the net.