YouTube star Logan Paul has taken to his social media to apologize after a video he posted of him visiting Japan’s famed ‘Suicide Forest’ went Viral.
In the video, Paul, who is in Japan, visited the Aokigahara forest which is called the Suicide Forest due to the high number of suicides committed there.
Paul in the video happened upon a dead body and kept filming. From all indications, the suicide was recent and many found the coverage of the event in extremely bad taste.
He was roundly criticised by many fellow YouTubers especially those with close ties to the country.
Paul took to his Twitter to apologize. He said; “Let’s start with this—I’m sorry,”
“This is a first for me. I’ve never faced criticism like this before, because I’ve never made a mistake like this before. I’m surrounded by good people and believe I make good decisions, but I’m still a human being. I can be wrong.”
He continued, “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. That’s never the intention. I intended to raise awareness for suicide and suicide prevention and while I thought ‘if this video saves just ONE life, it’ll be worth it,’ I was misguided by shock and awe, as portrayed in the video. I still am.”
While he said he didn’t do it for the views, many YouTube creators were quick to point out that his use of the dead body as a thumbnail suggested otherwise.
Dear Internet, pic.twitter.com/42OCDBhiWg
— Logan Paul (@LoganPaul) January 2, 2018
How dare you! You disgust me. I can’t believe that so many young people look up to you. So sad. Hopefully this latest video woke them up. You are pure trash. Plain and simple. Suicide is not a joke. Go rot in hell.