YouTube star Logan Paul's widely condemned video featuring the body of a suicide victim is now drawing the ire of Japanese youth suicide prevention organization Ova, which slammed the footage as "totally unacceptable."
Paul, 22, posted the video earlier this week after he came across a dead body hanging from a tree while visiting Japan's Aokigahara forest, which is known as a location where many people take their own lives.
"It is totally unacceptable to show someone who was driven to suicide as if it's humorous content," Jiro Ito, the head of Ova, told The Japan Times.
In the video, Paul stresses that suicide, depression and mental illness "are not a joke," but also includes a few clips at the end where he giggles as he expresses how shocked he was by coming across the body.
Ito said the video goes against how the World Health Organization recommends the media cover suicides, telling the Japanese newspaper that Paul's video "raises serious issues from the point of suicide prevention."
Paul uploaded the video to YouTube on New Year's Eve and garnered immediate backlash from a slew of viewers who were disgusted by his insensitivity to share footage of a suicide victim.
Paul has since issued a pair of apologies for the video, which has been taken down.
"I didn't do it for views. I get views," Paul wrote in his first apology, which he shared to Twitter. "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."
He shared a tearful video the following day, describing the stunt as a "severe and continuous lapse in judgment."
The Los Angeles-based Paul's YouTube channel has over 15 million subscribers.
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