YouTube cuts ties with star

MORE than a week ago, one of YouTube’s biggest stars uploaded a video containing extensive footage of an apparent suicide victim hanging from a tree in a Japanese forest.

This week, the platform announced that Logan Paul, whose channel has 15 million subscribers, would lose access to Google’s premium ad programme. His upcoming projects with YouTube Red – the platform’s subscription service – have been put on hold.

“In light of recent events, we have decided to remove Logan Paul’s channels from Google Preferred,” a YouTube spokesperson said.

Google Preferred is a premium ad programme that runs on the top 5% of channels on YouTube. Access to it is lucrative for creators, although Paul will still be able to monetise his content on YouTube without it.

Paul was supposed to star in the YouTube original movie The Thinning: New World Order, slated for release later this year. But his original projects with YouTube Red are now “on hold” and he will no longer star in the next series of the YouTube Red comedy Foursome.

If you followed the saga of PewDiePie last year, this punishment might sound familiar: it’s similar to how YouTube handled the fallout from a Wall Street Journal report that highlighted the YouTube superstar’s Nazi jokes. But the reaction to the two situations among YouTube’s community of creators has been very different.

In PewDiePie’s case, the decision caused outrage among many creators who felt the platform had acted too quickly and harshly. In the week since Paul’s video was uploaded, however, creators have felt YouTube’s response was not nearly harsh or quick enough.

YouTube previously released a pair of statements about Paul’s video. The first outlined YouTube’s policy on graphic content and noted that the platform partners with safety groups like the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. It wasn’t in the on-the-record statement but YouTube has since confirmed it also issued a “strike” against Paul’s channel for violating its community guidelines.

Paul removed the video from his channel himself, apologised, and put his daily vlogging schedule on pause.

YouTube’s second statement, released on Tuesday, was the first from the platform that fully condemned the content in Paul’s video. It was tweeted from YouTube’s main account and was addressed directly to their community. YouTube promised to consider “further consequences” for Paul.

Those consequences, as they did for PewDiePie, amount to YouTube deciding to disavow one of its biggest stars. But that doesn’t mean Paul’s career on the platform is over. He has 15 million subscribers and a dedicated fan base who will still watch his videos and buy his merchandise. According to Socialblade, Paul has gained tens of thousands of subscribers every day since this controversy began. – Washington Post

Logan Paul