YouTube said Sunday it had barred Sky News Australia from uploading new content for one week, citing concerns about COVID-19 misinformation, French news agency AFP reported.
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The move comes after a review of posts uploaded by the Rupert Murdoch-owned TV channel, which has a substantial online presence.
"We have clear and established COVID-19 medical misinformation policies ... to prevent the spread of COVID-19 misinformation that could cause real-world harm," a YouTube statement said.
With 1.86 million YouTube subscribers, Sky News Australia has a conservative following well beyond Australia. Its posts, including some questioning whether there is a pandemic and the efficacy of vaccines, are widely shared on social media forums around the world that spread virus and vaccine misinformation.
The last YouTube upload, from three days ago, features a host claiming that lockdowns have failed and criticizing state authorities for extending Sydney's current stay-at-home orders.
Sky News confirmed the temporary ban. "We support broad discussion and debate on a wide range of topics and perspectives which is vital to any democracy," a company spokesperson said.
Social media organizations are facing pushback following a change in policy towards the hypothesis that the coronavirus may have originated in a laboratory in Wuhan.
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Originally lambasted as a conspiracy theory while being advocated for by then-US President Donal Trump, some social media organizations suppressed information related to the hypothesis.
Subsequently, additional information came to light and President Joe Biden instructed intelligence agencies to examine the idea. Free speech advocates are citing this case as an example of the inherent problems in suppressing information, even when it appears to be false at the time.
i24NEWS contributed to this report.
