YouTube Cuts Business Ties With Social Media Star Logan Paul After Suicide Video Controversy
YouTube has made several financial decisions regarding their business relationship with Logan Paul. The company has removed some of Paul's content.
No More Paid Content From Logan Paul
YouTube has taken swift action against its most famous star. A spokesperson revealed that YouTube would no longer put any of Paul's content on their premium platforms.
The company also dropped the aspiring actor from the upcoming season of YouTube's original comedy series Foursome. In addition, the social media company has pushed the pause button on several of Paul's original series and any feature-length films he starred in, including the upcoming sequel to the famous 2017 YouTube produced film The Thinning.
A Late Response
Many of the video bloggers and internet insiders believe that these actions were a little too late. YouTube released their first statement 11 days after Paul posted the controversial video.
When the company issued its statement on Jan. 9, it apologized for the lack of communication and stated that it shared many of the community members' outrage regarding the incident. The company condemned Paul's actions and added that it would not allow the channel to continue to violate the community guidelines.
"We know that the actions of one creator can affect the entire community, so we'll have more to share on steps we're taking to ensure a video like this is never circulated again."
A Chain Of Events
The video that YouTube is referencing to in its statements against Paul is his video uploaded on Dec. 31, 2017. When this situation unfolded, Paul was in a middle of an adventure in Japan.
During his visit, Paul and his friends decided to visit the Aokigahara. According to Japanese folklore, the Aokigahara is a Japanese forest that is infamous for being the site where its visitors could encounter a dead body. Paul and his colleagues found a dead body and recorded the encounter.
Paul released his discovery to his YouTube channel for his 15 million subscribers to see. Before Paul and his team took down the grotesque video, it had been viewed over 6 million times.
Paul immediately faced intense scrutiny over the video as an all-out social media war between the Logang, Paul's faithful followers, and critics that included Breaking Bad actor Aaron Paul, Game of Thrones and X-Men movie actress Sophie Turner, and the vloggers.
On Jan. 1, Paul apologized for his actions and stated that the controversial video's original intention was to create a dialogue regarding suicide awareness. Two days later, Paul issued a statement on Twitter, saying that he would be stepping away from the vlogging process to regroup.
Paul has neither uploaded new content nor addressed YouTube's decision to cut ties with him as of yet.
