YouTuber Logan Paul drew widespread condemnation and criticism Tuesday after posting a video that showed an apparent suicide victim.
The video was filmed in Aokigahara, known as Japan's "suicide forest" and one of the most popular suicide sites in the world. Some statistics say up to 105 suicides a year take place in Aokigahara.
In the video, now removed from YouTube, Paul and several of his friends discovered the body of a man who apparently hanged himself.
The footage showed several close-ups of the body with only the face blurred out.
Approaching the body, Paul was heard asking: "Yo are you alive?"
One of his companions was heard complaining that he "doesn't feel good," to which Paul responded, saying: "What, you never stand next to a dead guy?" and then laughed.
Before being removed, the video was viewed 6 million times in 24 hours.
Many people, including several celebrities, harshly criticized Paul on social media, where he was trending with nearly 700,000 tweets mentioning him, calling the video "disgusting," "sickening" and "disrespectful."
Dear @LoganPaul,
— Aaron Paul (@aaronpaul_8) 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.
Ap
Paul later apologized for the video on Twitter, saying he has "never made a mistake like this before."
"I'm often reminded of how big of 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," the YouTuber said.
Dear Internet, pic.twitter.com/42OCDBhiWg
— Logan Paul (@LoganPaul) January 2, 2018
Paul's channel on YouTube has 15 million subscribers.
