On his FunForLouis YouTube channel, Louis Cole spans the globe. His videos, which are shot with a high-quality camera and precisely edited, document his adventures across six continents. His vlogs have made FunForLouis into one of YouTube’s most popular travel channels, with more than 1.8 million subscribers.
For his latest series, which is ongoing at the time of this post, Cole ventured to North Korea, which is infamous for its strict travel restrictions, its near-complete isolation from the rest of the world, and the severe human rights violations its government inflicts upon its constituents. Cole’s vlogs, however, have not shown the dark side of North Korean life. Instead, he has attempted to, as he puts it, “focus on positive things in the country and combat the purely negative image we see in the Media.”
That plan has gotten him into some hot water. Several outlets, Vanity Fair among them, have accused of serving, consciously or not, as propaganda tool for the communist nation. Cole has traveled with a tour group whose itinerary is curated by North Korea, and many critics believe he has a responsibility to, at the very least, show greater recognition of the horrors around him while simultaneously enjoying his stay.
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Cole, who has already returned from North Korea, responded to his critics in his most recent video. He apologized for not making his intentions immediately clear and attempted to justify his trip as a mission geared toward intercultural cooperation. “The international community’s relationship with North Korea is fully dependent on how well we know them,” he concludes, “and the intention of this trip was to go out and to get to know them better.”
Numerous YouTube stars (including Philip DeFranco) can testify to the fact that Cole is a friendly and genuine person, and in apologizing, he comes off as remorseful and contrite. At the same time, he seems as if he has made some clear errors in judgement, and his response is an imperfect video that lends itself to additional criticisms.
No matter what side you take on this issue, it raises some interesting questions. What obligation do influential YouTube stars have to paint even pictures of the subjects they discuss? How much previous knowledge can those stars assume their viewers have? Is there value in “happy” content that has been scrubbed clean of negativity? Not everyone will have to provide answers on the same level as Cole, but anyone who works with a divisive creator, a controversial brand, or a sinister government should take these issues into consideration when planning and carrying out their work.
