Date Time YouTube ‘silences’ Sky News; but normal programming will resume In the same week that Sky News launched its new 24-hour free-to-air channel to 7 million regional Australians, it wants you to believe it has been unfairly silenced by Big Tech. This is a bit rich, coming from the premium channel on Australia’s largest pay TV service – a channel that reaches more than a third of the Australian population if we are to believe Sky’s own figures. YouTube, which is owned by Google, on Thursday suspended Sky News Australia from uploading new videos for a week, saying it had breached its policy on COVID-19 misinformation. It also issued a “strike” under Google’s three-strike policy; if Sky gets three strikes in 90 days it is permanently suspended from the platform.