Logan Paul made a video posing near of a suicide victim in Japan's Aokigahara forest. He was widely condemned, seemed chastened, made a soft-focus video about his learning experience, then went back in front of the camera to taser a dead rat and poke a fish. YouTube issued a statement saying Paul's been suspended again from their advertising program, but you get the feeling that, like him, they just aren't learning their lesson.
The BBC:
YouTube has suspended advertising on video blogger Logan Paul's channels owing to his "pattern of behaviour". …
"After careful consideration, we have decided to temporarily suspend ads on Logan Paul's YouTube channels," YouTube said in a statement Friday. "This is not a decision we made lightly; however, we believe he has exhibited a pattern of behavior in his videos that makes his channel not only unsuitable for advertisers, but also potentially damaging to the broader creator community."
In response to Logan Paul's recent pattern of behavior, we've temporarily suspended ads on his channels.
— YouTube Creators (@YTCreators) February 9, 2018
YouTube is fixated on Brand Suitability as the problem, but that's how you expect YouTube to fail at PR, apologizing to advertisers in the place it's supposed to be apologizing to viewers. The bigger problem is how it's trying to serve Brands in the first place, by financing a dystopian cargo cult of adolescent fameballs in the hope of incubating true talent. The social milieux they've created is a breeding ground for shark-eyed nasties and bug-eyed nazis, and their job depends on not understanding it.
