In December 2017, Logan Paul faced intense backlash for posting a YouTube video that showed the body of an apparent suicide victim in a forest in Japan. In Touch looks back at what happened in the infamous scandal and how the social media personality responded to the outrage amid the March 27, 2025, premiere of his and brother Jake Paul’s reality series on Max, Paul American.

What Was Logan Paul’s ‘Suicide Forest’ Scandal?

On December 31, 2017, Logan uploaded a video to his YouTube page in which he and some friends explored the Aokigahara forest at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan, which is known to be a frequent site of suicides.

While filming the “haunted” forest, Logan and his friends came across a man who appeared to have hanged himself. Though the professional wrestler blurred out the seemingly deceased man’s face in the video, he showed other parts of the body as he stood near the person and reacted to the discovery.

“Yo, are you alive?” he shouted at the body, according to The Atlantic. “Are you f–king with us?”

The video received 6 million views in its first day on YouTube, but Logan quickly came under fire for including the footage of the body and for his behavior in the video.

Logan Paul Issued an Apology After the ‘Suicide Forest’ Scandal

Logan quickly removed the video from his YouTube page in light of the backlash he received. The following day, he issued an apology on his Twitter (now X).

“Let’s start with this — I’m sorry,” he began in the January 1, 2018, post. “This is a first for me. I’ve never faced criticism like this before because l’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.”

Logan continued, “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.”

The reality star added that he did “this s–t every day,” referring to making videos, so “one may understand that it’s easy to get caught up in the moment without fully weighing the possible ramifications.”

Logan concluded, “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. I love everyone. I believe in people. I’m out here. Peace. #Logang4Life.”

After receiving additional backlash in response to the Twitter apology, Logan uploaded a lengthy apology video to the platform, in which he said that he “should have put the cameras down” when they found the body in the forest.

“There’s a lot of things I should have done differently, but I didn’t. And for that, from the bottom of my heart, I am sorry,” he added.

In an exclusive interview with In Touch at the time, brand and reputation expert Eric Schiffer suggested that Logan should invest time and money into suicide prevention causes, as well as organizations that assist with mental health challenges.

“The days of ‘I’m sorry’ are over. The days of reading from his teleprompter apology are over — and this should be a wake-up call to all viral stars, who are probably shaken based on what they saw with Logan Paul — that you can be amazingly big and within an instant, because of bad judgement, you can destroy your brand,” Schiffer said. “Logan Paul is now also serving as a messenger to so many viral YouTube stars, to clean up their future productions and ensure they make good editorial choices for videos released for young people.”

How Did YouTube Respond to Logan Paul’s ‘Suicide Forest’ Scandal?

Ten days after the controversy, YouTube removed Logan from its exclusive Google Preferred advertising tier, where brands sell ads on the platform’s top five percent of content creators. The platform stated that Logan’s video violated its policy against presenting violent or gory content in a way that is sensational or disrespectful, according to NPR.

“Our hearts go out to the family of the person featured in the video,” YouTube told the outlet in a statement at the time.

Logan Paul Returned to YouTube With a Video About Suicide Awareness

After three weeks off from the platform, Logan returned to YouTube with a video about suicide awareness and a pledge to donate $1 million to the cause. He had donated $318,000 by 2020, according to The Mighty.

“Just like everyone in life, people make mistakes, mine happened to be in public and in front of the whole world,” Logan said while reflecting on the scandal in a 2019 interview with BBC. “Being able to take that and get up and keep on fighting and being able to redeem yourself and make a comeback even though 99 percent of the world doesn’t believe in you, I think is gonna say a lot and make a lot of people believe in themselves when they’re down.”

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.