Last week, YouTuber Logan Paul was under fire for posting a video of himself and friends discovering a dead body in Japan's Aokigahara forest aka "suicide forest."

After quickly deleting the video, the viral web star uploaded a stern apology to his YT channel, stating: “I should've never posted the video...I do not deserve to be defended," and, "I’m ashamed of myself. I’m disappointed in myself. And I promise to do better. I will do better.”

On Tuesday (January 9), YouTube addressed the controversy with a an open letter written in a series of tweets. The five-tweet thread began with this: "Many of you have been frustrated with our lack of communication recently. You’re right to be. You deserve to know what's going on."

The video streaming service went on to state its feelings about the video, addressing that mental health and suicide is not a joke and should never be a drive force of views, quoting Anna Akana: "That body was a person someone loved. You do not walk into a suicide forest with a camera and claim mental health awareness."


 

 

The thread continues by stating its disappointment with Paul's decision to post the video, that disciplinary actions have been brought to him accordingly and they're looking into further repercussions. It ends with this: "It’s taken us a long time to respond, but we’ve been listening to everything you’ve been saying. We know that the actions of one creator can affect the entire community, so we’ll have more to share soon on steps we’re taking to ensure a video like this is never circulated again."


 

Though it took YouTube a week to address the situation, it's nice to see them concerned about the community. Here's to hoping Logan Paul's dreadful mistake is a learning experience for everyone, including YouTube itself.

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