By: Bill Chappell – npr.org – January 2, 2018

After publishing images of a visit to Japan’s “suicide forest” that included footage of a dead body, YouTube star Logan Paul is apologizing — and critics are denouncing both the video and Logan’s behavior in it. The video was watched millions of times before he removed it.

“I didn’t do it for views. I get views,” said Paul, who has some 15 million YouTube subscribers. “I did it because I thought I could make a positive ripple on the internet, not cause a monsoon of negativity. That’s never the intention.”

The video was filmed in the Aokigahara forest at the edge of Mount Fuji, an area that for years has been famous for its popularity among people who want to carry out a suicide. In his video, Paul blurred out the face of the person who had died, but he showed other parts of the body as he and his friends stood near it and talked.

Intended or not, an intense backlash has hit Paul, including calls for YouTube to remove his channel.

The negative feedback included a tweet from actress and online video veteran Anna Akana, who lost her sister, Kristina, to suicide 10 years ago.

Akana wrote:

Akana was responding to Paul’s attempt at an apology, in which he wrote, “I intended to raise awareness for suicide and suicide prevention and while I thought ‘if this video saves just ONE life, it’ll be worth it,’ I was misguided by shock and awe, as portrayed in the video. I still am.”

Source: Logan Paul, YouTube Star, Apologizes As Critics Slam Video Showing Dead Body : The Two-Way : NPR