By Kanach Peterson

YouTube sensation Logan Paul has ended his content hiatus today by appearing on Good Morning America.
In late December, Logan Paul uploaded a video to his YouTube channel of over 16 million subscribers that depicted the irresponsible and inconsiderate actions of him and his entourage at Japan’s Aokigahara forest. The forest is known by many as the “suicide forest” because of the high volume of people that commit suicide in the forest. The video sparked instant backlash from all over the internet, with several other well-known internet personalities calling him out on the severity of his actions. On, January 2nd he uploaded his formal apology video along with a message to his fans saying that he will be taking a break from the platform to understand suicide and “take time to reflect.” Last Wednesday, Logan Paul posted a video to his channel titled “Suicide: Be Here Tomorrow,” where he explains that he spent the past 3 weeks understanding suicide and how big of a problem it is in society. In this time, he spoke to individuals who attempted suicide as well as meet with Dr. John Draper, the director of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Logan Paul also made a hefty donation of $1 Million to several suicide prevention resources.
This morning Logan Paul appeared before America as a different person. In his interview 1 on 1 interview, Michael Strahan pressed Paul on the key points of his actions that upset so many people. Paul said that he believes he deserves the criticism and blame for the array of poor decisions that led to the video being uploaded.
“This has been, to be honest with you, the hardest time in my life,” he said. “I think I’m going to earn a second chance. I don’t think everyone should get a second chance. Some people do horrible things … this was a horrible lapse of judgment. And I can, will and am going to learn from it and be a better person.”
The extreme backlash from the community led to Logan Paul being removed from the Google Preferred partnership, decreasing his YouTube ad revenue by almost half. But it wasn’t until after the community was in an uproar that YouTube took this action, releasing a statement saying, “The channel violated our community guidelines, we acted accordingly, and we are looking at further consequences.” It is believed among many that YouTube hesitate to punish Logan Paul because of a bias towards him over other creators.
Whether or not Logan Paul deserves to be forgiven for his actions is up to the individual. But it is clear that he has taken the necessary steps to seriously understand the severity of his actions and use his influence for a good purpose.