‘I Don’t Expect To Be Forgiven’: YouTube’s Logan Paul Posts Apology Video Following Suicide Video Backlash
YouTube star Logan Paul is still under fire for publishing a video that featured the body of a suicide victim hanging in Japan’s Aokigahara forest.
The clip, which was shared over the weekend, featured Paul and his cohorts exploring the woodland area, which is also referred to as the “Suicide Forest,” and stumbling across a dead man hanging from a tree. Although the man’s face was blurred in the clip, Paul purposely zoomed in on the suicide victim and reportedly mocked his dire fate. Paul also used an image of the dead man for the main screen cap of the video.
Following an outcry from his followers, Paul removed the video Sunday evening and posted a written apology on his Twitter that many called tone-deaf due to Logan’s choice to omit any mention his actions.
“I didn’t do it for views,” he partially wrote, as the Inquisitr shared on Sunday night. “I get views. I did it because I thought I could a positive ripple on the internet, not cause a monsoon of negativity.”
On Monday morning, according to Uproxx, Paul followed his written apology with a video apology, where he took more of a damning stance over his actions, calling them, in no uncertain terms, unforgivable.
“I’ve made a severe and continuous lapse in my judgement, and I don’t expect to be forgiven,” Paul claims in his video apology. “I’m simply here to apologize. What we came across in the woods that day was obviously unplanned and the reactions you saw on tape were raw. There’s a lot of things I should have done differently, but I didn’t,” he continued.
“And for that, from the bottom of my heart, I am sorry.”
Paul’s apology can be seen below.
Following the removal of his video, a spokesperson for YouTube also commented on the matter, explaining that graphic videos like Logan’s are only acceptable on the site when they are “supported” by educational information.
YouTube's statement on the Logan Paul debacle, which is pretty standard YouTube-ese: vague, irrelevant to the situation, and offering no details on how YouTube plans to handle it. pic.twitter.com/mLCUF3qSC3
— The Call is Coming from Inside the Nash (@Nash076) January 2, 2018
Many have called for Logan’s YouTube channel, which is followed by 15 millions subscribers, to either be given a “strike” or be fully removed from the internet. Fellow YouTube personality Philip DeFranco mentioned that before the suicide video was removed, it had accumulated nearly six million views and 600,000 “likes” from Paul’s followers.
“Just remember this. Before all the extended community outrage against Logan Paul’s ‘we found a dead body’ video, there was a seemingly uncontested 550-600,000 likes on it. His core audience doesn’t give a f**k. Unless Youtube does something, this doesn’t hurt him.”
Last year, Logan’s brother, Jake Paul, made headlines of his own for causing a repeated ruckus in his Los Angeles neighborhood, as noted by KTLA. In response, Jake was written off of his Disney Channel series, Bizaardvark.
A section of the now-deleted Logan Paul video (not featuring the dead body) can be seen below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNwmF1HF4JY
