Logan Paul Addresses Backlash: ‘I’ve Never Been Hated By the Whole World’
Logan Paul said he is trying to do better after the backlash from his controversial December 31st video, which showed a man’s body hanging in Aokigahara, Japan’s suicide forest.
“It’s been tough because ironically, I’m being told to commit suicide myself,” he said during a pre-taped interview with Good Morning America’s Michael Strahan that aired Thursday. “Millions of people literally telling me they hate me, to go die in a fire. The most horrible, horrific things.” Asked whether he thought the criticism was fair, however, Paul responded, “That’s the thing, I do.”
But, he said, he also believes that parents should have a bigger responsibility in monitoring what their kids are watching.
“I’m going to be honest with you, Michael,” Paul told the morning host. “I think parents should be monitoring what their children are watching more. Every parent I meet whose kids are under the age of 12, I go, ‘Hey, you let your kids watch my stuff?’ And they go, ‘Yeah. What am I going to do?’ But at the same time, it’s not like I am a bad guy. I am a good guy who made a bad decision.”
Since posting the shocking video to YouTube, Paul has been slammed with criticism and dropped from YouTube’s preferred program. He has also been nixed from the video site’s show Foursome. (The changes, he said, have “hurt” him financially, “but it’s not like I’m drowning.”)
“I understand that they needed to take a stance, and while I don’t necessarily maybe agree with it, I do respect it. I do respect it,” Paul said of YouTube’s decisions to cut him from parts of their platform.
“One of the things I’m learning, which actually pertains to me, is crisis passes. Crises passes, man,” he continued. “For anyone suffering, I think it’s important to know that. Like, you are not alone. For me, why I say that it’s important for me, is ’cause, like, dude. This has been, to be honest with you, the hardest time of my life. I’ve never been hated by the whole world. It’s been something to definitely overcome. I will think twice in the future about what I post. Probably three times.”
Paul explained that the initial idea for the video was to “do another fun blog, go camp for a night and make an entertaining piece of content in a forest.” Things changed “pretty drastically and quickly,” however, when he and his crew stumbled upon the man’s body not 100 yards from the parking lot.
Strahan pointed out that even if Paul and his crew were initially unsure of what to do, they still had to think about the ethical implications when they filmed, edited and then posted the clip online. He asked whether Paul ever considered it might not be a good idea to share the video.
“Yeah, the idea was to shock and show the harsh realities of suicide and get people talking about something I don’t think people are talking about much,” Paul said. “And still that’s the goal today.”