Logan Paul: YouTube stops giving vlogger ad revenue after 'recent pattern of behaviour'
Logan Paul – the YouTube user who posted videos of himself laughing next to dead bodies and tasering dead animals – has finally been cut off by YouTube.
The ban is only temporary. But it is the most dramatic sanctions to be applied to Mr Paul after a run of much criticised posts.
The company said that it had acted after yet more controversial posts, in which he was seeing tasering dead rats and removing a life fish from water before "performing CPR" on it. That video came just days after he posted his "comeback" post, after taking a break from the site following his controversial "suicide forest" video.
"In response to Logan Paul's recent pattern of behaviour," the platform tweeted on Friday, "we've temporarily suspended ads on his channels."
YouTube said the decision had been made to suspend ads on all of his channels after "careful consideration".
A spokeswoman said: "This is not a decision we made lightly, however, we believe he has exhibited a pattern of behaviour in his videos that makes his channel not only unsuitable for advertisers, but also potentially damaging to the broader creator community."
After apologising for showing the body of a suicide victim in a video posted on December 31, he took a three-week break from uploading daily before returning with a video highlighting mental health issues and speaking to a suicide survivor.
Following that video, California-based Paul returned to his usual style, posting daily videos of him pranking the public, skydiving, and confronting a stranger who had entered his home.
It is unclear how much YouTube's decision to suspend his ad revenue will affect Paul's earnings, as he has a lucrative merchandise line that he promotes multiple times per video to his 63 million subscribers.
According to the website Social Blade, which estimates influencers' earnings from their online statistics, Paul may have earned anything from £28,000 to £450,000 from ad revenue on YouTube in the last month alone, despite taking a break.
After he posted a video showing a suicide victim's body in Japan's Aokigahara Forest, YouTube put projects with him "on hold" and removed him from Google Preferred, its programme for advertisers allowing them to place ads on the site's most popular clips.
Additional reporting by agencies
