Those individuals might develop loyalty towards Microsoft, White mentioned. And eventually, some individuals might even “grow weary of circumventing the Microsoft account stipulations, or Microsoft will introduce a new feature that will entice them to create an account, leading them to comply and start utilizing a Microsoft account,” White proposed in his video. “Some will, but not me.”
Microsoft declined Ars’ invitation to provide a statement.
According to White, it appeared plausible that YouTube was utilizing AI to identify additional violations but perhaps acknowledged the dangers of excessive moderation and, as a result, wasn’t permitting AI to issue strikes against his account.
However, that was merely a “theory” that he and other creators formulated, but they couldn’t verify, since YouTube’s chatbot designed for creator support seemed to be “suspicously AI-operated,” automatically responding even when a “supervisor” was present, White articulated in his video.
Lacking further clarity from YouTube, creators who share tutorials, tech advice, and computer repair videos felt anxious. Their greatest concern was that unforeseen modifications in automated content moderation might unexpectedly cause them to be removed from YouTube for posting videos that appear to be usual and standard within tech communities, White and Britec stated.
“We are not even certain about the topics we can create videos on,” White expressed. “Everything’s hypothetical at this point because we don’t have anything concrete from YouTube.”
YouTube advises creating the content it’s removing
White’s channel surged in popularity after YouTube featured an early trending video he produced, demonstrating a workaround to install Windows 11 on non-supported hardware. Following that video, his channel’s viewership skyrocketed, and he gradually grew his subscriber count to approximately 330,000.
Previously, White’s videos in that area had been flagged as violations, but human reviews quickly reinstated them.
“They received strikes for similar reasons, but at that point, I suppose the AI revolution hadn’t fully manifested,” White noted. “So it was relatively straightforward to communicate with an actual person. And through interacting with a real person, they were like, ‘Yeah, this is ridiculous.’ And they reinstated the videos.”
Currently, YouTube suggests that human review is responsible for the removals, which likely doesn’t fully alleviate creators’ concerns about capricious takedowns.
