Los Angeles - American YouTube star Logan
Paul on Tuesday apologised for posting a video of a suicide
victim in Japan, saying he had made a "huge mistake" and was
ashamed of himself.
Paul, 22, whose almost daily video blogs on YouTube have
over 15 million followers, apologised for laughing with friends
about the body they filmed hanging on a tree in Japan's
so-called "suicide forest" and posted to the video-sharing
channel.
Logan deleted the video on Monday after it caused a social
media backlash.
"I've made a severe and continuous lapse in my judgment and
I don't expect to be forgiven. I'm simply here to apologise,"
Paul said in a YouTube video called "So Sorry."
He said the shots of he and his friends laughing nervously
after the discovery of the body were "raw and unfiltered"
reactions and that the video should never have been posted or
even filmed.
"I've made a huge mistake. I don't expect to be forgiven...
I'm ashamed of myself. I am disappointed," he added.
Logan shot the video on a visit to Japan's Aokigahara forest
on the slopes of Mount Fuji, that is known for its high number
of suicides. He promoted it on his Twitter account at the
weekend as "the craziest and most real video I've ever
uploaded."
The dense woods of the Aokigahara Forest at the base of Mount Fuji, Japan. File picture: Atsushi Tsukada/AP
Reaction was swift with critics calling the video disgusting
and tasteless.
"Paul believes he's 'making YouTube history' by vlogging the
body of a young person who died by suicide... You're not Neil
Armstrong bro, it's simply a thing no one else has been tacky
enough to do outside rotten. com circa 2000," tweeted Caitlin
Doughty, a Los Angeles mortician and author of "From Here to
Eternity."
Former "Breaking Bad" star Aaron Paul said suicide was no
joke. "You disgust me. I can't believe that so many young people
look up to you," the actor tweeted to Paul, who he is not
related to. "Hopefully this latest video woke them up. You are
pure trash. Plain and simple. Suicide is not a joke. Go rot in
hell."