Sky News Australia is a major Australian cable news channel owned by News Corp Australia. Recently they have had numerous videos go viral in the United States because they have given Joe Biden critical coverage while most US media outlets refuse to.
However, their Youtube channel, which has 1.86 million viewers, ceased publishing new content Saturday. It turns out Youtube suspended them from posting new content for seven days and gave them a “strike.”
Sky News says Youtube ordered them to delete several videos about Covid-19. They say almost all of the videos Youtube objected to were from 2020. The fact that Youtube took issue with content that is a year old looks very suspicious.
A spokesman for Youtube told Reuters, “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.”
Youtube has steadily worked to drive away non-corporate media through demonetization, suppression of distribution, and outright banishments. They started with conservatives, but now even independent left-of-center channels are being targeted. It would seem that even major corporate media are no longer safe.
