YouTube has offered a form of apology for the video YouTuber Logan Paul posted showing extensive footage of a suicide victim in Japan’s so-called “Suicide Forest”.
Taking to Twitter, YouTube’s official account shot out a series of tweets it called an “open letter” to its community, breaking its silence on the controversial video which prompted widespread outrage. The video was later taken down by Logan Paul, who posted two videos apologising for his actions.
An open letter to our community:
Many of you have been frustrated with our lack of communication recently. You’re right to be. You deserve to know what’s going on.
— YouTube (@YouTube) January 9, 2018
“Many of you have been frustrated with our lack of communication recently. You’re right to be. You deserve to know what’s going on,” YouTube tweeted, though it appeared not to explicitly apologise for its slow response and what looked to be a lack of action over the Logan Paul channel.
“We expect more of the creators who build their community on @YouTube, as we’re sure you do too. The channel violated our community guidelines, we acted accordingly, and we are looking at further consequences,” it added, though did not go into details as to what those consequences would be, and at the time of writing Logan Paul’s channel is still up and running.
“It’s taken us a long time to respond, but we’ve been listening to everything you’ve been saying. We know that the actions of one creator can affect the entire community, so we’ll have more to share soon on steps we’re taking to ensure a video like this is never circulated again.”
YouTube didn’t offer any insight into why the video, which breached its guidelines on gory, shocking and disrespectful content, managed to get past moderators and be viewed by some six million people before it was taken down.
With this in mind, YouTube’s tweets could be seen as merely a half-apology for its role in effectively facilitating the spread of disturbing and offensive content. It’s already under scrutiny for not showing responsibility in addressing such problems.
Given YouTube has one billion active monthly users, policing the site isn’t likely to be an easy task. But with Google’s technology and monetary clout, there’s almost certainly more YouTube can do to tackle problem videos that get uploaded onto it.
Related: CES 2018 highlights
How can YouTube tackle offensive and disturbing video content? Have your say on our Facebook page or tweet @TrustedReviews.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
