Within the last year, YouTube has changed its policies and rules in an attempt to help provide a safe and fun environment for all viewers. YouTube claims that they do not tolerate nudity, sexual content, hateful content, violent or graphic content, cyberbullying, threats, copyright, child endangerment, and more. Many YouTubers do not always follow this policy despite this, and a prime example of this is Logan Paul.

  YouTube has since been demonetizing videos, which means that if the viewer is not of a specific age they cannot view the video because of certain content, such as foul language. This being more plain, a recent incident with YouTuber Logan Paul, makes it appear as though YouTube is  not holding up their end of the bargain.

  On Dec. 3, 2016, Logan Paul, a popular American actor and vlogger, posted a video to his YouTube channel of his trip to Fujikawaguchiko, Japan, where he took a trip to Aokigahara, a forest that is also known as the Suicide Forest. So named because of its history with residents of Japan committing suicide by hanging themselves there. While filming for this channel, he came across the body of a young man hanging from a tree several feet away. Instead of discontinuing filming, he continued and approached the body where he then continued to laugh and make jokes, pointing at the victim. Normally, one might think that after this was posted to YouTube, they would have removed it for a number of reasons. Yet, in the end, it was Logan Paul himself who removed it from his channel, due to the amount of backlash he was getting over the controversial video. Since deleting the video, he has uploaded an apology video named “So Sorry” where he apologized for his actions.

  Still, just because he removed the video, it still raises the question for many viewers and several YouTubers, such as Tom Harlock, and PewDiepie, as to why his actions were left unpunished. YouTubers get their videos flagged and removed every day over things such as language, and to have YouTube not only leave his video up but also put it as “trending,” for more popularity and attention was frowned upon by many and shown a bad light on YouTube. This has given people the idea that since YouTube gets more money from the more views and subscribers a YouTuber has, they are more concerned with money than the safety of their social media.

  Many people were still extremely angry about his actions, even after the videos’ removal and an apology, and were tweeting YouTube, making posts, and videos demanding to know what actions are going to be taken about Logan Paul’s channel and video. In response, YouTube has cut certain business ties with him by putting his original projects on hold and removed his channels from YouTube’s Google Preferred program, which allows brands to publish ads to popular videos. He was also removed from his show with YouTube Red. Although he still has his platforms to publish videos, he might lose a large portion of revenue from this and may remain one of the top paid YouTubers, and made 12.5 million dollars in 2017, since he has 15,871,188 subscribers and counting.

  Overall, YouTube seems to be trying to make amends after not taking earlier action on this case, and hopefully for many YouTube fans, they can continue to improve their policies. Audiences can also hope that they do not just target smaller channels on offensive language, and violence, just because YouTube does not make as much money off of the channels as they do as the more popular YouTubers, and instead attack the more impressionable content instead, like violence and death.