As much ire as Logal Paul has been generating thanks to his tasteless and offensive video venturing into Japan’s “Suicide Forest” and video taping someone who had committed suicide, YouTube was getting a lot of hate, too.
Paul’s video was up for hours before he himself took it down, causing users and critics of YouTube to ask why the platform didn’t take down his video immediately, even after admitting that “the video appeared to have violated its standards.” (Paul was eventually given a strike on his account for the video.)
“Our hearts go out to the family of the person featured in the video. YouTube prohibits violent or gory content posted in a shocking, sensational or disrespectful manner. If a video is graphic, it can only remain on the site when supported by appropriate educational or documentary information and in some cases it will be age-gated,” a YouTube spokesperson said at the time. “We partner with safety groups such as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline to provide educational resources that are incorporated in our YouTube Safety Center.”
However, that didn’t satisfy the masses who were metaphorically calling for Paul’s head.
Google, which owns YouTube, said in a statement on Wednesday that it has since “decided to remove Logan Paul’s channels from Google Preferred,” referring to a program that allows companies to sell ads on the top 5% of the platform’s most popular content creators.
While this is not the outright ban that many people saw fitting for Paul, it will certainly put a large dent in how revenue stream and serves as a deterrent to other users to upload disturbing and offensive content.