Logan Paul, a young man with the dubious title of “YouTube star,” last week uploaded a video to the video platform that saw him stifling a guffaw in front of a dead body hanging from a tree in Japan’s “Suicide Forest.”

Following a tsunami of criticism, Paul (pictured, left) took the video down, offered a lackluster apology, was lambasted for that weak missive and subsequently offered an apparently more sincere apology. The “star” then likely rubbed his hands as the world’s media discussed his madcap antics, which have earned Paul millions of dollars over the years as he has racked up an allegiance of adoring young fans — if not the rest of the world.

Dear @LoganPaul,

How dare you! You disgust me. I can’t believe that so many young people look up to you. So sad. Hopefully this latest video woke them up. You are pure trash. Plain and simple. Suicide is not a joke. Go rot in hell.

Ap

— Aaron Paul (@aaronpaul_8) January 2, 2018

No doubt Paul’s stunt worked as a business maneuver, but in the fall-out questions have been raised over what YouTube should be moderating and why such a video has caused the typical “snowflake” outrage given that we see dead bodies on the news on a regular basis. Others have stated that it wasn’t the fact he filmed the scene of a hanged body but that he sensationalized it and seemed to find the entire event amusing — in spite of saying something about mental health problems.

So sorry. pic.twitter.com/JkYXzYsrLX

— Logan Paul (@LoganPaul) January 2, 2018

Paul took the video down, but now it has been uploaded a number of times, in spite of YouTube’s attempts to keep it away from prying eyes. This is because with editing, or censoring parts of the clip, posters can get past YouTube’s parameters of respectability.

Paul himself could complain about copyright infringement, but why would he? He’s getting lots of free publicity. Those reposting an edited version of the video are also making hay, not to mention media getting traffic from covering it. In fact, Paul’s infamy has worked out for everyone except the victim, which more broadly is human values. In that sense, there is a kind of irony in the sometimes monetized outrage.

YouTube issued a statement about the matter: “YouTube prohibits violent or gory content posted in a shocking, sensational, or disrespectful manner. If a video is graphic, it can only remain on the site when supported by appropriate educational or documentary information and in some cases it will be age-gated.”

The company has been said to have a moderation problem, but that’s nothing new. The question that overshadows YouTube’s moderation algorithms is why an evidently vacuous, uncurious young man has persuaded a generation of online acolytes to make him a YouTube star.

In a sense, it’s obviously worth it to publish a video of a hanged body when you receive almost s7 million hits. Therein lies the paradox. YouTube may still have a moderation problem, but more stringent censorship seems unlikely to end the behavior of YouTube creators and their followers. YouTube’s guidelines seem fair enough. The problem is in the mouse of the beholder as much as it is the problem of the entertainer.

That said, what Paul has done may have transgressed what the World Health Organization says are the correct, or ethical, media guidelines on reporting suicide. Paul is not part of the mainstream media, but a media figure he is, and thus he should have been more aware of why giggling over the matter of suicide might seem crude to some people.

Ultimately it’s a question of ethics — of viewers as much as creators — more than moderation. We can only blame ourselves, not the technology.

Image: YouTube