Logan Paul apologizes for posting video
US - An apology from Logan Paul did little to quell the outrage after the social media star posted a YouTube video, showing what appears to be a body hanging from a tree in a Japanese forest known for suicides. On Monday, Paul apologized for the vlog: “I didn’t do it for views. I get views. I did it because I thought I could make a positive ripple on the internet, not cause a monsoon of negativity.” “I intended to raise awareness for suicide and suicide prevention and while I thought, ‘if this video saves just ONE life, it’ll be worth it’, I was misguided by shock and awe, as portrayed in the video”, according to his statement posted on Twitter. Paul’s apology didn’t placate the growing anger, as it was also criticized as being tone deaf and self-praising. He removed the original video from YouTube, but it remains available online elsewhere. In it, Paul and his group come upon a body hanging in the Aokigahara forest. They call out to him and Paul asks someone to call the police twice. After he sees the body, Paul says: “This is a first for me. This literally probably just happened.” Paul bursts into laughter. “It was gonna be a joke. This was all a joke. Why did it become so real?” he asks.
“Depression and mental illnesses is not a joke”, he says. “We came here with the intent to focus on the haunted aspect of the forest. This just became very real.” Paul and his friends gather at the parking lot. And he says to the camera that “the smiling and laughing ... is not a portrayal of how I feel about the circumstances. He said that he was not monetizing the video for “obvious reasons” and gave a graphic video warning. The backlash over the video came quickly. “The young person who died was not for Paul- not their body, not their image, not their story”, tweeted Caitlin Doughty, a mortician and author. (CNN.COM)