SkyNews Australia anchor slams YouTube for 'most extreme cancelation of free speech imaginable'

Days after YouTube suspended SkyNews Australia's channel for one week, citing failure to comply with the platform's policy against potential COVID-19 misinformation, network host Sharri Markson decried the ban as the "most extreme cancellation of free speech imaginable."

Markson, an award-winning journalist and anchor of the Sunday program "Sharri", told "Tucker Carlson Tonight" that YouTube is misguidedly using the World Health Organization as a barometer for what qualifies as coronavirus-related "misinformation."

WHERE TO FIND COVID VACCINES

The suspension had been issued last Thursday following a review of the network's content purporting to encourage people to use Hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin as remedies for coronavirus symptoms, according to Reuters.

Ivermectin, an anti-parasitic, is often prescribed to fend off tropical diseases like Zika, and a much stronger formulation of the relatively inexpensive drug is commonly prescribed to horses.

Markson said SkyNews Australia is not guilty of spreading misinformation, but instead it is establishment figures trusted by Big Tech that are pointing to NIAID Director Anthony Fauci.

"Sky News – the entire news network in Australia has been censored on YouTube for an entire week for bringing responsible, informed coverage to the people," Markson claimed.

"The people actually guilty of misinformation [are] Anthony Fauci – who said masks don't work before back-flipping [and] Joe Biden who until recently said vaccinations stop infections, when that's not what they do – they prevent hospitalization and death," she said.

Fauci, 80, has been under harsh criticism for appearing to flip-flop on masks and in other regards, as well as being challenged on his public prescriptions and NIH funding practices by lawmakers like Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.

"The WHO -- the very body that YouTube and the other tech giants rely on for advice -- insisted for months that COVID-19 was not transmissible, the WHO insisted for months that COVID 19 was not transmissible there was no human to human transmission," Markson added.

She said the WHO also objected to travel bans instituted early in the pandemic by Australia, the United States, and New Zealand.

"[The WHO] told Europe travel bans were not necessary. This directly led to the spread of the virus globally and the WHO said there was no chance the virus leaked from a laboratory and so failed to investigate it," Markson continued.

This is the body guilty of extreme misinformation and yet this is what the tech giants like YouTube are relying on for their advice when they decide to censor an entire news network in the most extreme cancellation of free speech imaginable."

In a statement to Fox News, a YouTube spokesperson said, "We have clear and established COVID-19 medical misinformation policies based on local and global health authority guidance, to prevent the spread of COVID-19 misinformation that could cause real-world harm. We apply our policies equally for everyone regardless of uploader, 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. Specifically, we don’t allow content that denies the existence of COVID-19 or that encourages people to use Hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin to treat or prevent the virus. We do allow for videos that have sufficient countervailing context, which the violative videos did not provide."

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Host Tucker Carlson later added that Australia under Liberal Prime Minister Scott Morrison has "turned into a COVID dictatorship." He added that White House COVID adviser Michael Osterholm incidentally made the argument recently on MSNBC that masks don't work – telling the anchor of that program instead that more comprehensive "respirators" would instead be effective.

Sky News and Fox News share common ownership.