Youtube has been one of the most popular websites in the new era of technology. It’s an outlet full of videos ranging from reviews, rants, comedy, drama, music, and so much more. But recently, there has been an uprise in branded “Youtubers”, or maybe more commonly known as vloggers. Dedicated social media experts, usually Millenials and Gen Z that most likely live in California, record their daily lives and push the extremes in order to get views, likes, and subscribes. They promote their brand, sell their merchandise, and create an army of young fans who tune in almost every day to watch. This started as an innocent thing to do for fun, but recently has gone to far in the world of influencing.

Logan Paul is one of the most famous Youtube vloggers of all time. He has an astounding amount of subscribers, reaching 15 million just recently. He published a vlog a day, for over 400 days, and became the epitome of a social media influencer. His followers, coined as the LoGang, are an army in and of themselves. They recently made history by holding the largest meet-and-greet in history at the Dubai Mall, where 11,000 people gathered to watch him. He sells his own merch like it’s nobody’s business, and adds to his personal bank account every single day. According to Celebrity Net Worth, Logan Paul has a net worth of $14 million, and he is not afraid to flaunt it.

However, it has become seemingly clear that all of this power that he has over his viewers has become too much. On a trip to Japan, his video compilations showed such a blatant disrespect for the culture and for the people of Japan. Storming the streets, filming when he was not supposed to, and disregarding any kind of decency for the natives of the country were just what he published himself through his vlogs, so who knows what they cut out of the videos. But it gets so much worse than that.

On December 31st, 2017, Logan Paul posted yet another vlog recording his day. However, this one was very different, and caused a huge ripple on all types of social media. Paul and his crew travelled to the infamous “Suicide Forest” in Japan, which is a well known place for locals of the country to go and commit suicide. Geared in a bright green Toy Story Alien hat, Paul continued to record as he stood only a couple feet from a man who had recently hung himself. The entire group stood their, recording, laughing, and making jokes such as “What, you’ve never stood next to a dead guy?” They even went as far to show a partially blurred image of the body, like it was no big deal. The video received 6 million views before it was taken down after major backlash. Logan Paul took it too far, and now he is officially facing the consequences.

Logan Paul became the number one trending topic on Twitter, and faced critic from hundreds, if not thousands, of fellow youtubers, parents, children, and fans. This was the limit for his games, and not many are willing to forgive for such a mistake. The problem lies in the fact that his two apologies, (one written and posted on Twitter, the other a short clip posted to his Youtube page) were extremely self-centered, and most definitely not heartfelt. It took him until the second try to apologize to the victim and his family, and even then his tone was robotic and insincere. The general public wasn’t just mad at Paul though, it was also paired with Youtube. This company makes a very large sum of money off of Paul’s posts and content, and they were recently in business together. This video, under the regulations for content, was breaking rule after rule. However, this video ended up becoming number one on the Trending page on Youtube, and Paul’s account remains untouched. The people were mad because he messed up, and Youtube did nothing about it. Finally, under the pressure, they decided to act.

On January 10th, Youtube finally released that they would be cutting their business ties with Logan Paul. This includes his part in “Foursome”, a Youtube Red Comedy series that is set to release its third season this year, and putting his sequel movie “The Thinning: New World Order” on hold until further review. But maybe most importantly, is that Youtube is removing Paul’s content from Google Preferred, which is where top brands sell ads to their top 5% of creators. This is one of the biggest sources of income that Paul has when it comes to posting videos, and now he’s out. People are still asking for more though, like the deletion of his account in total.

What’s important to take out of Paul’s fall from the top is that he is not the only toxic social media influence out there. Everyday, offensive and demeaning content is posted by thousands of creators across the world. Nothing is too taboo when it comes to something that will make a quick buck. Even though Youtube finished their business relationship with Logan Paul, there needs to be more done, across the spectrum. It’s time for offensive vloggers to be cut out.

 

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/youtube-cuts-ties-logan-paul-video-suicide-victim-article-1.3750208http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42644321