YouTube Bans Sky news Australia For Spreading COVID Rumors

YouTube has barred Sky News Australia from uploading new content for a week, saying it had breached rules on spreading COVID-19 misinformation, BBC reported.

Photo Insert: COVID-19 misinformation or any form of real-world harm is deemed a virus YouTube contains through a three-strike policy

It issued a "strike" under its three-strike policy, the last of which means permanent removal. YouTube did not point to specific items but said it opposed material that "could cause real-world harm."

The TV channel's digital editor said the decision was a disturbing attack on the ability to think freely.

Sky News Australia is owned by a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and has 1.85 million YouTube subscribers. The ban could affect its revenue stream from Google.

A YouTube statement said it had "clear and established COVID-19 medical misinformation policies based on local and global health authority guidance."

A spokesperson told the British newspaper Guardian it "did not allow content that denies the existence of COVID-19" or which encouraged people "to use hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin to treat or prevent the virus."

Neither has been proven to be effective against Covid, like the Clorox bleach that defeated US president Trump suggested could be an antidote to the virus. The videos in question "did not provide sufficient countervailing context," the spokesperson said.

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