Sky News Australia rejects Covid-19 claims after YouTube ban
Sky News Australia will not be able to upload content on its YouTube channel for seven days as the channel has reportedly violated YouTube’s medical misinformation policies.
The channel is guilty of posting various videos that do not accept the existence of Covid-19 or encourage people to consider using ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine.
Sky News Australia’s response after YouTube ban
The Sky News Australia YouTube that has 1.85m subscribers cannot upload new content or live streams on its channel for one week after a ban imposed by the famous digital platform.
According to the Digital Editor of Sky News Australia, Jack Houghton,
Furthermore, Sky News issued a statement on its official website regarding the ban. As per the statement,
The channel acknowledges YouTube’s right to enforce its policies and looks forward to continuing posting to its 1.85 million YouTube subscribers shortly.
In addition to this, Sky News Australia officially stated,
We take our commitment to meeting editorial and community expectations seriously.
The famous news platform has uploaded more than 20,000 videos on its YouTube channel during the last year or so and none of them denying Covid-19 were uploaded or removed.
YouTube banned Sky News Channel on Thursday afternoon
YouTube imposed the ban on the Sky News YouTube channel on Thursday afternoon when the Daily Telegraph discontinued Alan Jone’s regular column because of the controversary erupted by his comments calling New South Wales chief health officer Kerry Chant, “a village idiot” on one of his Sky News programs.
In response, Sky News officially said,
YouTube has been issuing strikes against anyone uploading content that contains medical misinformation
According to a YouTube’s spokesperson,
This suspension will affect Sky News’s revenue stream from Google
The Sky News YouTube channel has gone from strengths to strengths during the last couple of years. The channel has successfully increased its subscriber base from 700,000 to 1.85m over the last two years.
Moreover, the leading news platform is a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp that made a historic multi-year deal with Google in February 2021.
That said, the channel is expected to loose a major chunk of its revenue from Google because of the ban imposed by YouTube since the channel cannot upload new videos or live streams to grab the attention of its existing and potential subscribers.
Revenue aside, the strike will hamper Sky News Australia reputation among viewers across the world a great deal.
Undoubtedly, YouTube seems to be an important platform for the Sky News Australia. But, the recent strike on its YouTube channel can adversely impact its goodwill and revenue stream both to a certain extent.
Besides, the news platform will not be able to follow freedom of speech rule in the right manner. As a result, the channel can also lose the trust of its thousands of subscribers.