YouTube has responded to the outcry against one of its most popular stars, Logan Paul, who this weekend uploaded a video of a dead body to a channel followed by 15 million subscribers.
The video, since removed, appears to show a person who had hanged himself in a Japanese forest well known as the scene of many suicides and attempted suicides. The video, uploaded Dec. 31, continues to draw swift and widespread condemnation on social media.
In the video, Paul and his friends tour Japan’s Aokigahara forest, which is nicknamed the “Suicide Forest.” The group encounter a man left hanging after apparently committing suicide. Paul can be heard yelling, “Are you joking?” before stepping back and reiterating to the camera that they are looking at a body.
Paul then walks up to the body, providing close-ups of the man’s hands and zooming in on the pockets of the victim to point out he still has his wallet. The victim’s face is blurred out during portions of the video. Paul’s video was not monetized; in multiple playthroughs, no pre-roll, mid-roll or banner ad was shown.
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The video was later age-gated, meaning it was restricted to viewers logged into a YouTube account whose owner is 18 years or older. The video still accumulated hundreds of thousands of views, and was condemned by other popular YouTubers, including PewDiePie, jackscepticeye, Keemstar, Philip DeFranco and Ethan Klein. Paul then removed the video and responded to the outcry on Twitter.
“I’ve never faced criticism like this before, because I’ve never made a mistake like this before,” Paul said in a tweet. “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.”
YouTube has a “Safety Team” that monitors for content violating the company’s terms of use. It issued a statement to YouTuber Philip DeFranco, who has become one of the community’s go-to sources for news.
“Our hearts go out to the family of the person featured in the video,” YouTube’s statement reads. “YouTube prohibits violent or gory content posted in a shocking, sensational or disrespectful manner. 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. We partner with safety groups such as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline to provide educational resources that are incorporated in our YouTube Safety Center.”
Paul’s own statement can be read below.
Dear Internet, pic.twitter.com/42OCDBhiWg
— Logan Paul (@LoganPaul) January 2, 2018
Paul’s apology doesn’t appear to be enough for some, who have called him out for sensationalizing the suicide for views. The video’s keyframe showed Paul in the foreground with an exaggerated look on his face, while the body hung in the background. Others pointed out that the video’s sensationalized title and disturbing thumbnail were irresponsible or in poor taste.