YouTube star faces backlash over video
Logan Paul apologizes for showing suicide victim
YouTube star Logan Paul apologized for posting a video showing an apparent suicide victim in Japan’s “suicide forest,” drawing condemnation for appearing to use the death for comic purposes.
The video, entitled “We saw a dead body in the Japanese Suicide Forest,” featured Paul and several friends arriving to camp at the forest, officially known as Aokigahara. After the group ventured off the trail, they happen upon an apparent suicide victim hanging from a tree. Paul and company then decide to venture closer to the body, filming their reactions along the way. The video shows several close-ups of the victim’s body, though the victim’s face is blurred.
Paul warns viewers that the video is graphic and remarks that he thinks it is “a moment in YouTube history.” He says suicide is “not the answer” before jokingly replying to an off-camera, apparently distraught friend, saying “What, you’ve never seen a dead guy before?”
Paul became a trending topic on Twitter late Monday night, with celebrities and other YouTubers joining others on the Internet criticizing him for even posting the video that jokes about suicide. It’s the latest instance that Googleowned YouTube has taken heat for usergenerated content that’s popular with kids — and frequently makes its amateur creators money — but that has disturbing or adult themes. YouTube has vowed to crack down on videos that exploit children and to impose tighter filters for content that requires age restrictions.
The video was pulled from Paul’s official YouTube channel but was re-uploaded by other users on the service.
In a statement Tuesday, YouTube said the video violated its Community Guideline policies and shared condolences to the family of the person who appeared in the video. “YouTube prohibits violent or gory content posted in a shocking, sensational or disrespectful manner,” an excerpt of YouTube’s statement reads. “If a video is graphic, it can only remain on the site when supported by appropriate educational or documentary information and in some cases it will be age-gated.”
According to New York magazine, which saw the original video before it was pulled, the video garnered more than 6 million views in the 24 hours after it was published. The original video also apparently included information for the American Society for Suicide Prevention.
In a second apology posted to his channel Tuesday, Paul said he regrets posting the video. “There’s a lot of things I should’ve done differently, but I didn’t,” he said. “And for that, from the bottom of my heart, I am sorry.”
Paul, 22, rose to Internet fame using the now-defunct video sharing service Vine. He has transitioned to making videos on YouTube, where he is one of the site’s biggest stars with more than 15 million subscribers and more than 3.9 million followers on Twitter. According to Forbes, he earned $12.5 million last year. Paul’s videos, often of various pranks and outrageous stunts, frequently get several million views from his “Logang” fanbase.
In an apology posted to his Twitter account late Monday, Paul said he “never faced criticism like this before” and that he wanted to “raise awareness for suicide and suicide prevention.”