In a series of tweets, YouTube condemned the disturbing suicide video shared by Logan Paul.
The YouTube star Logan Paul, has more than 15 million subscribers, with millions viewing his videos. On News Year's Day, he shared a video of a dead body he found.
In a video titled "We found a dead body in the Japanese Suicide Forest."
In the clip, which has since been pulled from YouTube, Paul and a few of his friends discover a man who died by suicide in Aokigahara, at the base of Japan's Mount Fuji, and showed graphic images of the man's body.
Afterwards, YouTube was criticized by many for not doing more to prevent these kinds of videos from appearing on the platform.
A little more than a week later, YouTube released an "open letter" on Twitter:
An open letter to our community:
Many of you have been frustrated with our lack of communication recently. You’re right to be. You deserve to know what's going on.— YouTube (@YouTube) January 9, 2018
Suicide is not a joke, nor should it ever be a driving force for views. As Anna Akana put it perfectly: "That body was a person someone loved. You do not walk into a suicide forest with a camera and claim mental health awareness."
— YouTube (@YouTube) January 9, 2018
As for Logan Paul, he apologized and told the world he was taking a break from vlogging in an entirely self-centered apology. Paul said, “buckle the fuck up, because you’re never gonna see a video like this again.” He then joked around, and spoke directly to his followers, which mostly comprises tweens and teens, dubbed “the Logang.
Dear Internet, pic.twitter.com/42OCDBhiWg
— Logan Paul (@LoganPaul) January 2, 2018
In a second apology, Paul claims to be dejected.
It's been nearly a year since Felix Kjellberg, better known as PewDiePie, was dropped by Disney. This was because the Wall Street Journal watched his YouTube videos, pointing out Kjellberg's frequent use of swastikas and other Nazi imagery.