Logan Paul has just been handed his second round of punishment in as many months by the YouTube Powers That Be.
A lot of people have been wondering – after the 22-year-old YouTuber’s journey of disgrace and so-called retribution – whether Logan Paul has learned his lesson.
Turns out YouTube thinks he probably hasn’t and they’ve acted accordingly, with a monetary slap on the wrist for the overgrown manchild.
Paul returned to YouTube with his tail between his legs after belittling the issue of suicide in a video – and yet he’s still up to his old click-baiting tricks.
This time, it wasn’t at the expense of mental health issues, but innocent animals.
In case you missed it, the YouTube so-called prankster took a month-long hiatus after posting a despicable video depicting the aftermath of suicide.
The 22-year-old travelled to Japan’s infamous Suicide Forest and filmed a man hanging from a tree.
He later edited the video and chose to include his own reactions in the clip in a disrespectful and distasteful display of ignorance, masquerading as a mission to raise suicide prevention awareness.
After public outrage and weeks of deliberation, YouTube settled upon an appropriate punishment for Paul, which saw his channel removed from Google’s lucrative Preferred Ads program.
YouTube also cancelled his YouTube Red movie The Thinning: New World Order, which was the sequel to his 2016 movie The Thinning.
Logan even faced police action after uploading video evidence of public indecency, interference of business operations, multiple traffic violations and destruction of property, as part of the wildly offensive ‘We found a dead body in the Japanese Suicide Forest’ footage.
After the social media storm, Logan went away to take a good hard look at himself in the mirror – and make a narcissistic – if well-meaning – video about suicide prevention.
He told ABC the experience had been ‘tough’:
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He calls himself ‘a good guy who made a bad decision’ and detailed the death threats he’s been receiving since posting the initial video.
He called the ‘hurt’ he’s feeling ‘ironic’ and claims he think he came across the suicide victim so he could ‘learn’.
Days later, he was accused of making light of self-harm again, with this now deleted tweet:
Twitter reacted accordingly and yet, Logan still hasn’t learned his lesson.
His latest irresponsible offering features Logan repeatedly firing a taser at a dead rat, for reasons which are unfathomable to anyone with any level of empathy towards another creature.
In the video, posted earlier this week on his YouTube channel, Paul, along with a couple of friends, are getting rid of a dead rat they found on an outside deck – and he decided it would be ‘cool’ to shoot the carcass with a taser.
He later zaps the rat again after they toss it in a garbage bin.
He’s also seen doing ‘CPR’ on a fish he removes from his garden pond. Disclaimer: That’s not how you do ‘CPR’ on a fish.
Animal rights group, PETA called on YouTube to delete the video.
On February 8, PETA US Senior Vice President Lisa Lange told UNILAD:
How many chances does Logan Paul get? PETA finds it repulsive that this ‘internet personality’ with millions of impressionable young followers has not learned the lesson that there is sadness, not humour, in the death of others.
This sort of content has no place on YouTube or anywhere else, as it could desensitise young people to cruelty to animals, so PETA is calling on the platform to remove it.
Now, the video sharing site has responded, by temporarily suspending ads on Paul’s channels, as of February 9, citing his ‘recent pattern of behaviour’.
This puts paid to the young YouTube town joker’s income stream, which is estimated to be worth more than a million dollars each month.
In a statement given to The Verge, a YouTube spokesperson said:
After careful consideration, we have decided to temporarily suspend ads on Logan Paul’s YouTube channels.
This is not a decision we made lightly, however, we believe he has exhibited a pattern of behavior in his videos that makes his channel not only unsuitable for advertisers, but also potentially damaging to the broader creator community.
Whether you enjoy Logan Paul’s sense of humour or not, if the platform feels a user has defied it guidelines – which are set out to protect and serve other users – it’s about time he reexamined his content and stopped dealing in death.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, please don’t suffer alone. Call Samaritans for free on their anonymous 24-hour phone line on 116 123.
A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.