Logan Paul Returns To YouTube With Suicide-Prevention Message, Some Say It’s Too Little Too Late

Logan Paul is back on YouTube. The disgraced video star has returned to the platform following a three-week absence, with a Public Service Announcement (PSA) about suicide and a pledge to donate a million dollars to suicide prevention efforts, InTouch Weekly is reporting.

Until about three weeks ago, Logan Paul was one of the hottest properties on YouTube. The online video personality had 15 million subscribers, and his videos generated millions of views. That all changed on December 31, 2017, however, when Logan uploaded a video shot in a forest in Japan. The Aokigahara Forest is also known as the “Suicide Forest” due to the high number of visitors who go to the eerily-quiet woods to commit suicide. Bodies of suicide victims can be found throughout the forest — and Logan’s video that day clearly showed at least one dead body hanging from a tree.

The backlash almost cost Logan his YouTube channel, with several viewers calling for the host to be banned. It also prompted changes at YouTube, according to Inverse, changing the way it pays creators and cracking down on inappropriate content.

Now, after a three-week furlough, Logan’s channel is still active, and Logan is back with a new video. Entitled “Suicide: Be Here Tomorrow,” the video purports to help people contemplating suicide, and those who love them, to get help.

“I know I’ve made mistakes. I know I’ve let people down.”

He then goes on to promise to donate $1 million (by some estimates, the amount of money Logan makes in a month from his channel) to various suicide charities.

After his previous video drew mass backlash for showing a suicide victim, YouTube star Logan Paul returns attempting to salvage his image with a suicide awareness PSA video and a $1 million dollar(Logan’s monthly earning) donation to suicide prevention. pic.twitter.com/FgSHXXU2ML

— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) January 25, 2018

So is Logan’s return to YouTube a genuine mea culpa and an honest admonition for people contemplating suicide to get help? Or is it meaningless attempt to get back into the good graces of YouTube and go back to making money hand over fist?

The answer to that question will depend on whom you ask. A user by the name of Jammy, for example, wasn’t buying Logan’s apology.

“We get treated to a precisely formed and deliberately manipulative piece of content from your PR machine to show us you care.”

Another user, Darcie Wilder, echoed those sentiments.

“It’s wild how Logan Paul is really showing how much he truly, authentically, deeply cares about making money.”

However, some users think Logan’s repentance is genuine. Here’s what user Casey Neistat had to say.

“Logan Paul has a long way to go and people are right to continue to question his motives but today’s video was a thoughtful first step. Hopefully this is part of a true effort to move on from sensationalist content.”

Regardless of whether or not his motives are genuine, one thing is clear: Logan Paul is not going away. As of this writing, his channel has 16 million subscribers, indicating that the suicide forest controversy may have cost him some viewers, but it brought other, new viewers. Similarly, also as of this writing, “Be Here Tomorrow” is the No. 1 Trending video on YouTube.