To ensure all COVID information shared on their platform are truthful, social media giant YouTube has suspended Sky News Australia.
The television channel owned by billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch was barred from posting content on the platform for violating YouTube’s COVID-19 misinformation policy.
In a statement released to the media, YouTube spokesperson Ivy Choi revealed they removed the misinformation videos and gave a strike to the widely popular channel.
The strike means the channel is barred from posting videos for one week. Choi explained if a channel receives three strikes within 90 days, it will be permanently banned, based on the platform’s guidelines.
“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,” Choi said in a statement.
Sky News digital editor Jack Houghton in an article published Sunday decried the move of YouTube.
Houghton said what YouTube did is a form of “censorship” based on the “political persuasion of the person making the comments.”
But Choi denied Houghton’s claim saying Youtube’s policies are applied “equally for everyone regardless of the uploader.”
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