YouTuber Logan Paul Loses Tens Of Thousands Of Potential Subscribers Over Suicide Video

The fallout continues for American YouTuber Logan Paul after he copped, and continues to cop, a severe amount of criticism for his 'suicide forest' video - and it's only the second day of 2018.

One of the biggest representations of how much this has fucked him up is his following on YouTube. According to Social Blade, he's lost more than 6,000 subscribers today.

Most people would think that's actually not that bad considering he's on 15.2 million subscribers at the moment. However Social Blade reveals that the 22-year-old gets anywhere between 29,000 to 72,000 every single day.

So this incident has cost him tens of thousands of potential followers just for a casual Tuesday. Who knows how many actual subscribers will drop off his channel as well as new ones in the days to come.

He wanted to do a video on Aokigahara in Japan, which is also known as the 'suicide forest', where dozens of people go every year to take their own lives. Logan and his mates were planning on camping out in the area (despite that being against the law) and seeing if it was haunted.

But the video took a very dark turn when the YouTuber and his pals came across a suicide victim's dead body. However, instead of respecting the seriousness of the situation, they brought the camera up close to the victim.

Logan addressed the camera and said suicide and mental illness is not a joke - yet a minute later in the video, they returned to joking around and laughing, with Paul even whipping open a bottle of sake because he didn't want 'to be sober for this shit'.

They claimed their jovial attitude was a coping mechanism for the horror they had just witnessed, but the fact Logan kept the footage of the victim in the final edit (with only his face blurred out) was a poor decision.

He's been called out every which way on social media, with plenty of people - including celebrities - giving their two cents.

In a bid to try and calm the almighty shitstorm that he created, Logan posted an apology on Twitter, which was labelled by some as half-arsed.

The YouTuber wrote: "This is a first for me. I've never faced criticism like this before, because I've never made a mistake like this before. I'm surrounded by good people and believe I make good decisions, but I'm still a human being. I can be wrong.

"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. That's never the intention. 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.

"I'm often reminded of how big of a reach I truly have and with great power comes great responsibility... for the first time in my life I'm regretful to say I handled that power incorrectly. It won't happen again."

While plenty of people on social media are calling for Logan to shut his channel down, fellow YouTuber Daniel Hardcastle questioned whether there will be any long term damage done to his brand.

He wrote: "Logan Paul isn't sorry. He's on the front page of every news site in the world. His brand, like so many other contemptible youtubers, is built on controversy. This will attract people to that brand and his apology will sedate his fans. He'll benefit.

"Big YouTubers aren't your friends. They're businesses. That video wasn't one guy with a camera, it went through a performer, editor, uploader etc. It wasn't a 'mistake', it was a calculated risk for rewards.

"The cost? He'll show millions of kids and teens a dead body and make them laugh at the corpse of a man whose crime was not getting the help he needed when he needed it."

'U OK M8?' is an initiative from LADbible in partnership with a range of mental health charities which features a series of films and stories to raise awareness of mental health.