Logan Paul suicide video controversy

On December 31, 2017, American actor and YouTube personality Logan Paul uploaded a vlog to his YouTube channel containing the recently-deceased corpse of a man who had committed suicide by hanging in Aokigahara at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan (known as the "suicide forest" due to its high popularity as a suicide site). Initially intended to be part three of Paul's "Tokyo Adventures", the group had planned to camp in the woods until the corpse was discovered. It was decided by the group to notify the authorities and withdraw from their original plans. The video gained 6.3 million views within 24 hours of being uploaded.

Video removal and public response
The video was criticized by many online, including celebrities politicians and other members of the YouTube community, of being tone-deaf to suicide victims. In turn, the video was removed from Paul's YouTube channel, following up with a written apology on Twitter on January 1, 2018. On January 2, 2018, a subsequent video apology was released to YouTube in which Paul describes his behavior as a "coping mechanism," asking his fans to stop defending his actions in the process. While acknowledging his actions as irresponsible, he denied any accusations of mocking the victim. The video has garnered over 30 million views as of January 5, 2018. YouTube retrospectively issued a statement claiming that the video violated their policies and guidelines. While the original video has been removed from Paul's channel on YouTube, re-uploads on YouTube remain, making appearances on other websites as well.

Change.org Petition
In wake of the controversy, Change.org user "... - .- -.-- .- .-.. .. ...- ." (translated from Morse Code to mean STAYALIVE) created a petition entitled “Delete Logan Paul’s YouTube Channel", which has received more than 400,000 signatures as of January 8, 2018. While numerous other petitions have been created, none have received as much attention.

Lawsuit
Maverick Apparel, a clothing brand for juniors and children, released a statement regarding the backlash, condemning Paul for giving his clothing line a similar name ("Maverick by Logan Paul"). The Maverick Apparel brand claimed shoppers were confusing their line with Paul's, resulting in a decline in sales.