There is outrage today after a video of a dead body in the Aokigahara forest in Japan was posted by an American vlogger on the youtube video platform over the weekend.
Logan Paul posted the video after he and his entourage discovered the body in the forest, which has a reputation as a destination where people go to end their own lives, under the title “we found a dead body in the suicide forest.” Instead of alerting the authorities, Paul filmed the body while he and his friends laughed and joked, and then uploaded the video to his youtube channel over the weekend.
This has sparked outrage from social media users, many of whom have called for Paul’s entire youtube channel to be removed. However Paul has apologised saying that he made a mistake.
Now, for me this raises several issues. The fact that individuals now have the ability to upload their own content to the internet could potentially be seen as a double-edged sword. On the one hand we as individuals now have the ability to capture parts of our lives, our opinions and our interactions to the internet in the form of vlogs, blogs and other social interactive sites. Indeed, the fact that this ability exists means that I am able to write this blog and when I’ve done so I will be able to publish it to my platforms of choice.
The other side to this ability however is the fact that if you are posting material online, not everyone is going to agree with you, and if you are posting controversial and/or offensive views or opinions or interactions you are likely to be called out on those by the people who disagree with your views. This does mean that you and you alone are responsible for what you post, and if you are being deliberately offensive you also need to take responsibility for your inappropriate behaviour and/or comments.
Logan Paul has apologised for his video saying that he made a mistake. However it’s fair to say here that the video was not a snapshot, and that Paul would have actually had to watch the video again, edit it, and only then would it have been uploaded to the internet. So it seems that he was comfortable with both the footage and the decision to upload it until he was called out on it and forced to issue an apology.
The other side to this however is that while plenty of people would argue for free speech online, the viewing of offensive postings and material has created a sub-section of people who believe that if someone posts what is in their opinion offensive material, far greater action should be taken than just calling out the individual on their postings. There have been calls for Logan Paul’s entire youtube channel to be removed when actually, the video has now been removed, he has apologised, and while it still goes without saying that the video in question was grossly offensive and raises some questions over what kind of person he might be, the suggestion that someone’s entire postings be removed off the back of what is one offensive posting takes it a step too far down the slippery slope of removing our right to free speech.
After all, what to one is offensive may not be to someone else and vice versa, and so while a post about finding what will clearly have been someone who was pushed by their own story to the point where they felt they had no other option than to end their own life would arguably be seen as offensive by most of those who viewed it or were knowledgeable of its existance, it’s possible that other postings and topics posted online could garner a much more divided response, and if we took the view that these posts or the individuals responsible for them should be removed from the platforms they are posted on we run the risk of entering into the realms of banning free speech, and the reality is that freedom of speech is something which we should aspire to, even if we don’t always agree with what that represents.
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