American YouTube star Logan Paul issued an apology on Tuesday after posting a video showing a dead body hanging from a tree.
Paul, whose YouTube channel has around 15 million followers, made the discovery while walking with friends in Japan’s Aokigahara forest, which is also known as the “suicide forest.” The video was later deleted.
In its introduction, the 22-year-old Paul said it’s “the most real video I’ve ever posted.”
When the group find the body, Paul looked surprised, and said he has never seen a dead person. He then nervously laughs.
In an apology posted on Twitter, Paul said that he published the scene to “raise awareness for suicide and suicide prevention.”
“Let me start with this — I’m sorry,” he wrote. “I didn’t do it for views. I get views. I did it because I thought I could make a positive ripple on the internet, not cause a monsoon of negativity.”
He added: “I’m often reminded of how big a reach I truly have & with great power comes great responsibility… for the first time in my life I’m regretful to say I handled that power incorrectly. It won’t happen again.”
The video, as well as Paul’s on-camera reaction to finding the body, was widely condemned by social media users.
In Paul’s subsequent video post, he referred to the previous day’s events, saying that finding a dead body was “not exactly how I planned on ending 2017.” He went on to encourage viewers to subscribe to his channel.
YouTube was also slammed for allowing content like Paul’s video to be posted. YouTube did not respond to a request for comment by NBC News early Tuesday.
In November, multiple big-name advertisers pulled ads on YouTube over disturbing content involving children. YouTube terminated hundreds of accounts and removed more than 150,000 videos as a result.
Paul is not the first YouTube star to make headlines for offensive content. Last February, the YouTuber known as PewDiePie posted anti-Semitic imagery in a number of videos. That resulted in widespread criticism as well as the cancellation of the second season of his reality show and removal from the Google Preferred channel.
However, the controversy did little to dent the star’s following. PewDiePie currently has 58 million subscribers to his YouTube channel.