Logan Paul‘s most controversial video to date has led the social media star to take a break from his regularly-scheduled programming. Four days after uploading a video that featured the body of an apparent suicide victim in Japan’s Aokigahara forest, Paul tweeted that he is “taking time to reflect” and will have “no vlog for now.”
taking time to reflect
no vlog for now
see you soon— Logan Paul (@LoganPaul) January 4, 2018
Subscribe for daily Tubefilter Top Stories
Aokigahara is known as the “suicide forest” due to the high number of self-inflicted fatalities that take place within it. During his trip to Japan, Paul visited Aokigahara and stumbled across a dead body. “Buckle the f-ck up, because you’re never gonna see a video like this again,” he said in the intro to a since-deleted vlog he posted on New Year’s Eve.
The blowback against Paul’s video was swift and furious. Many have accused him of treating suicide with a flippant and exploitative attitude. “What kind of f**ked up mentality do you need to have to do something like that?!” YouTube gamer Seán “Jacksepticeye” McLoughlin wrote in a tweet. “There is absolutely no defending it.”
In response to the criticism, Paul has attempted to show contrition, but his detractors aren’t having it. His apology vlog, which received more than 24 million views in its first day of activity, has been disliked more than 1.1 million times, making it one of the 20 most-disliked YouTube videos of all time.
Hopefully, Paul’s indefinite hiatus from his YouTube channel will give him time to reflect on his choices. Whether he will be able to turn his career back around remains to be seen.
