Australia’s Sky News has been suspended off YouTube for 7 days for breaching to video-sharing channels policies on spreading false information.

The broadcaster’s ban was first noticed by youth news network 6News.

A spokesperson for YouTube said the ban was due to spreading misinformation about Covid-19.

“We have clear and established COVID-19 medical misinformation policies based on local and global health authority guidance, to prevent the spread of COVID-19 misinformation that could cause real-world harm.”

“We apply our policies equally for everyone regardless of uploader, and in accordance with these policies and our long-standing strikes system, removed videos from and issued a strike to Sky News Australia’s channel.”

“Specifically, we don’t allow content that denies the existence of COVID-19 or that encourages people to use Hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin to treat or prevent the virus. We do allow for videos that have sufficient countervailing context, which the violative videos did not provide.”

Shortly after the story broke Sky News confirmed that they had been suspended from posting new content.

“Sky News Australia acknowledges YouTube’s right to enforce its policies and looks forward to continuing to publish its popular news and analysis content back to its audience of 1.85 million YouTube subscribers shortly.” the broadcaster said.

“We support broad discussion and debate on a wide range of topics and perspectives which is vital to any democracy.

“We take our commitment to meeting editorial and community expectations seriously.”

The broadcaster, which is part of the Murdoch media empire, said their Sky News Australia YouTube channel had published more than 20,000 videos over the past year, and was one of the most popular sources of Australian news on the video sharing platform.

“With 1.85 million subscribers, ‘Sky News Australia’ on YouTube has 400,000 subscribers more than ABC News, and is more popular than all three of Australia’s commercial news network’s YouTube channels combined.” Sky News said.

The broadcaster has recently been under scrutiny for several editorials which downplay the danger of Covid-19, and for regularly hosting guests that promote alternative treatments for the virus. While the broadcaster presents a traditional news service during the day, in the late afternoon and evening it runs back to back programs filled with opinionated commentators.

OIP Staff

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