YouTube Removes Windows 11 Installation Guides Over "Harmful Content" Fears
YouTube removed Windows 11 installation tutorials from its platform for risk of "injury or death." YouTube now stands at the intersection of an uproar regarding its content moderation policy after videos showing how to install Windows 11 on unsupported hardware were banned. Controversy has arisen surrounding how YouTube justified barring the videos with claims that they violated rules concerning content "likely to cause injury or death."
The Technical Channel Targeted for "Harmful Content"
The creator of the CyberCPU Tech channel reported that a video showing how to bypass Windows 11 system hardware limitation was taken down. Following an appeal, YouTube upheld its decision, stating the video violated its policies regarding "dangerous and harmful content.". This was subsequent to another one of the channel's videos, about installing the OS without the need for a Microsoft account, being briefly removed for violation "by mistake".
The author of the channel testified that YouTube had never offered any explanation about how the act of installing an operating system could lead to some sort of physical danger putting a person's life at risk. The working theory within the tech community seems to be that, somehow, YouTube's automated moderation system fatally misconstrued the technical instructions for a variant of malicious hacking or some form of harmful device tampering.
Broader Implications for IT Content Creators
The incident has created an uneasy situation for IT-academic content creators. Growing worries are that if dangerous keeps getting used by YouTube to label standard OS modification and setup tutorials, a vast number of helpful and educative videos may be targeted and taken down. Hence, it could prompt a chilling effect upon the creation of valuable technical guides on the site.
