Sky News Australia suspended from YouTube for a week over Covid-19 content

YouTube confirmed the suspension. PHOTO: REUTERS

MELBOURNE (REUTERS) - Sky News Australia said on Sunday (Aug 1) it has been temporarily suspended by video-sharing site YouTube following the platform's review of content for compliance with its Covid-19 policies.

"Sky News Australia acknowledges YouTube's right to enforce its policies and looks forward to continuing to publish its popular news and analysis content to its subscribers shortly," Sky News said in a statement on its website about the one-week suspension.

The 24-hour cable and television channel, which claims to have 1.85 million YouTube subscribers, is operated by Australian News Channel and is a subsidiary of News Corp Australia.

YouTube, owned by Alphabet's Google, confirmed the suspension.

"We apply our policies equally for everyone, and in accordance with these policies and our longstanding strikes system, removed videos from and issued a strike to Sky News Australia's channel," said a YouTube spokesman.

The Australian media reported that the one-week suspension was issued on Thursday and came after a review of Sky News Australia's content that allegedly denied the existence of Covid-19 or encouraged people to use hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin to treat the coronavirus, without providing countervailing context.

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