YouTube suspends Sky News Australia

Mariam Cheik-Hussein
By Mariam Cheik-Hussein | 2 August 2021
 

Sky News Australia has been banned from posting to YouTube for one week after reviews of old videos were found to violate the platform’s COVID-19 policies.

The temporary suspension was imposed on Thursday and means the channel, which has 1.85 million subscribers, isn’t able to upload new videos or live streams.

YouTube hasn’t said which Sky News programs violated its guidelines, but told media outlets there were “numerous” offending videos which have been removed.

In a written statement, YouTube said: “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.

"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.”

Any channel with three strikes in the same 90-day period will be permanently removed from YouTube.

Sky News rejects that any of its hosts denied the existence of COVID-19, as implied in earlier YouTube statements.

“We support broad discussion and debate on a wide range of topics and perspectives which is vital to any democracy,” a Sky News Australia spokesperson says.

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

Last year, Sky News entered distribution deals with YouTube to help monetise its news content.

The YouTube ban follows The Daily Telegraphs’ decision to drop Alan Jones’ weekly column last week. The publication says the controversial commentator, with anti-lockdown and anti-vaccination messaging, was no longer resonating with readers.

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