Logan Paul apologizes for posting suicide video

Logan Paul posted a message on Twitter apologizing for the posting the grisly video and saying that he had "never faced criticism like this before." Paul, whose daily videos sometimes average more than 20 million views, also emphasized that he didn't post the images to gain more attention:

"I didn't do it for views. I get views. I did it because I thought I could make a positive ripple on the internet, not cause a monsoon of negativity."

The video reportedly showed a man who had hanged himself from a tree in the Aokigahara forest located at the base of Japan's Mount Fuji. The identity of the man is apparently unknown.

Japan's 'suicide forest'

The 22-year-old US American YouTube star further highlighted he had rather "intended to raise awareness for suicide and suicide prevention" by posting the video taken in Japan's infamous Aokigahara forest, where up to 105 annual suicides have been reported in the past. The actual figure on suicides there is no longer being publicized, and signs have been erected throughout the 30-square-kilometer (12-square-mile) woodlands aimed at discouraging people from killing themselves.

The video has since been removed from YouTube – after reportedly receiving more than six million views. Some segments, however, are still available on other platforms.

Despite beefing up its mechanisms to police questionable content last month, the video was automatically flagged up as objectionable after first being posted on YouTube.

In the video, Paul said that "suicide is not joke, depression and mental illnesses are not a joke."

However, he was also seen repeatedly giggling during the 15-minute clip, attracting ire from around the world.

Backlash from celebrities

The video attracted a great deal of backlash online, including reactions from celebrities such as actor Aaron Paul, who said that Logan Paul was "pure trash."

British journalist and television personality Piers Morgan meanwhile called Logan Paul a "sick, twisted, heartless little prick."

Death on social media

The Logan Paul controversy is the latest backlash on social media over the lack of timely moderation of objectionable content. Facebook reviewed its filters and other safety mechanisms in place to flag violent content in April last year, after a 37-year-old US man had shot a senior citizen and posted the video online on Facebook afterward.

The so-called "Facebook killer" committed suicide two days after the killing. The same month, a man in Thailand ran a live stream on Facebook while murdering his infant daughter.

ss/rc (dpa, AP)