Sky News host Sharri Markson says freedom of speech is so fundamental to Australian values, and the values of all western democracies.

“But the place where speech happens in 2021 is often online – on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, the internet,” Ms Markson said.

“And the tech giants have taken it upon themselves to censor speech; to remove, delete, ban speech they don’t like.

“Not speech that will incite violence – no that’s fine, they leave that up there, the ayatollah of Iran, or violent dictators in North Korea, China, they’re fine to go ahead and say their hateful words.

“No, they are censoring speech they don’t like if it’s speech they don’t agree with. If it’s fashionable. If it’s not fashionable. If it’s conservative, if it’s pro-Trump.

“And it gets worse. The arrogance seemingly has no end.

“Google threatened to cut off the whole of Australia from news, from the internet virtually, from its search engine.

“Google has threatened to absolutely pull its search engine in Australia in reaction to plans from the government, very sensible plans, for it to come to an agreement with media outlets to pay for the content from which it profits.”