Dubai: What’s so funny about suicide?
That’s what outraged Twitter users were asking, when American YouTube star Logan Paul posted a video of himself and his friends laughing at a dead body hanging in a forest in Japan.
Paul, a 22-year-old video blogger, who has 3.9 million followers on Twitter and 15 million subscribers on YouTube, posted the 15-minute video as part of a series of posts from Japan, where he is currently holidaying with friends.
In the video, they express shock at finding the body in Aokigahara Forest, but then begin to make jokes.
A member of the group is heard off camera saying he “doesn’t feel good”, but Paul then asks him: “What, you never stand next to a dead guy?”
He then laughs.
Paul’s video, titled “We found a dead body in the Japanese Suicide Forest”, racked up millions of views on YouTube before it was taken down on Sunday.
By Monday, the hashtag #LoganPaul became a worldwide trend on twitter, as social media users expressed their disappointment in the vlogger. Some have asked for his entire channel to be removed from YouTube.
Twitter user @ChrisxRyan wrote: “You do not try to raise awareness of suicide and suicide prevention by filming a man who hung himself. You do not stand next to a suicide victim and make jokes. You do not show millions of children a dead body on YouTube. This is horrible and not okay.”
Another tweeter, @ShyBrar, wrote: “Logan Paul doesn’t realise how triggering that video probably was for some people. He mocked and laughed at a body hanging from a tree. Somebody needed help and their life was cut short because of it. They won’t wake up the next day and their family lost a loved one. It’s not funny.”
Other social media users used this opportunity to raise awareness about suicide prevention hotlines and websites, and urged people who were depressed to seek help.
Logan has since apologised, in a tweet, saying: “This is a first for me. I’ve never faced criticism like this before, because I’ve never made a mistake like this before.”
Since the 1950s, Aokigahara Forest, at the base of Mt. Fuji, has gained the tragic reputation of being the perfect place to die – it has even gained the nickname, ‘Suicide Forest’. Hundreds of people are found dead in the forest every year.
