YouTube suspends Sky News Australia for a week after an apparent breach of the platform’s COVID content policies

• YouTube removed videos and issued a strike to Sky News Australia’s channel, the tech platform said.
• A YouTube spokesperson confirmed the move, saying: “We apply our policies equally for everyone.”
• Media outlets said the suspension followed a review of the broadcaster’s COVID-related content.
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Sky News Australia said on Sunday it has been temporarily suspended by 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,” the broadcaster said in a statement on its website in relation to the suspension.

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

YouTube, owned by Alphabet Inc’s Google, confirmed the suspension.

“We apply our policies equally for everyone 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,” a YouTube spokesperson said.

Australian media reported that the one-week suspension was issued on Thursday and came after a review of Sky News Australia’s content focused on COVID-19.

Sky News Australia’s statement said YouTube responded to media requests mentioning its “denial of COVID-19” policies but it later dropped that reference in future media statements.

The broadcaster added that it “expressly rejects that any host has ever denied the existence of COVID-19 as was implied, and no such videos were ever published or removed.”