Aaron Paul and Sophie Turner are among the stars who have slammed YouTuber Logan Paul for showing a suicide victim in his new video.
The Internet sensation posted a 15-minute video on Sunday (31Dec17), in which he and some friends made their way through the “Japanese Suicide Forest”, named due to the amount of self-inflicted deaths that happen there, at the bottom of Mount Fuji. In the footage, Logan and his entourage come across a dead body hanging from a tree. As the police are called, Logan gets up close to the body and zooms right in.
https://twitter.com/aaronpaul_8/status/948032944408444928
After sharing the video, Logan was slammed by a host of famous faces who criticised him for using suicide as a way of promoting himself, with Breaking Bad star Aaron, no relation, writing: “Dear @LoganPaul, 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. Ap.”
Following the backlash, Logan took to his Twitter to share a lengthy apology, in which he wrote: “Where do I begin… Let’s start with this – I’m sorry.
Dear Internet, pic.twitter.com/42OCDBhiWg
— Logan Paul (@LoganPaul) January 2, 2018
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.”
Insisting he didn’t do it “for views”, adding “I get views”, but with the intention of “making a positive ripple on the internet”, Logan continued to state that he had been “misguided by shock and awe”.
“I’m often reminded of how big a reach I truly have and with great power comes great responsibility… for the first time in my life I’m regretful to say I handled that power incorrectly. It won’t happen again,” he wrote, concluding: “I love everyone. I believe in people. I’m out (of) here. Peace.”
https://twitter.com/SophieT/status/948042559229759488
Those unimpressed by Logan’s apology included Game of Thrones actress Sophie, who tweeted him: “You’re an idiot. You’re not raising awareness. You’re mocking. I can’t believe how self-praising your ‘apology’ is. You don’t deserve the success (views) you have. I pray to God you never have to experience anything like that man did.”
Meanwhile, fellow YouTuber Philip DeFranco tweeted: “I don’t want to just hate. I want this to be a teachable moment. After reading the apology I don’t think it will be. Less ‘I get a ton of views without dead guys’ and more of the ‘sorry I put a dead guy in the thumbnail and video’ would have been the beginning of my advice.”
