Controversial personality Logan Paul returned to YouTube today, after taking a break from the platform to deal with backlash.
Paul spent the past three weeks meeting with people who live with depression, to learning about struggling with mental illness and suicide. It’s much different than his typical vlogs, taking on a documentary tone as Paul confronts his mistake and attempts to shed a light on the issue in a serious way.
After Paul uploaded a video on Dec. 31, 2017, that showed the body of a man who appeared to have recently committed suicide, the YouTuber faced heavy criticism from every corner of the internet. This lead to his decision to step away from vlogging on Jan. 4, so that he could reflect on what happened. Paul posted two apologies on Twitter and YouTube before announcing his hiatus.
On Jan. 8, Paul’s father, Greg Paul, released a video on Instagram confirming Logan would be returning to YouTube “soon” and posting a message supporting his eldest son.
We all screw up. It’s a part of life. Do I agree with everything my boys do. NO! Do I agree with some of the things my friends do? NO! Do they disagree with some things I do? YES!Face it folks....... we all fuck up at one time or another. That’s life!! What we do with those mistakes, bad judgement or whatever term you give it , is what matters. I love my boys and I am sooo proud of them.
YouTube tweeted out an open letter on Jan. 9 condemning Paul’s video. The company later announced that Paul would be removed from its Google Preferred top-tier ad program and confirmed all of Paul’s YouTube Red projects were on hold indefinitely.
A couple of days before Paul returned to YouTube, his brother, fellow vlogger Jake Paul, released his own video talking about Logan’s actions. Jake said he wanted to let the situation “have some time to breathe” before chiming in on his brother’s video, not wanting to pile in on the conversation.
“I think what Logan did was very, very, very wrong and he made a huge mistake,” Paul says. “Not only is he paying from it — but he’s learning from it. I know Logan better than probably anybody else and I do know that he didn’t mean to offend anyone. I can tell when he’s in shock and he didn’t handle the situation the right way but I know in the back of his head he didn’t mean to offend or hurt anyone or create such a big frustration.”
