#SPSM chats about Logan Paul, and how he (unintentionally) has changed how major social media platforms handle the topic of suicide, 1/21/18, 9pCT.
Interestingly, it wasn’t suicide prevention media guidelines that led to Logan Paul’s apology about showing the corpse of someone who died by suicide in a Japanese forest known as a destination for people who want to take their lives.
While official leadership at YouTube waited 4 days to make the decision to remove this video, and took weeks to announce decisions to sever ties with Logan Paul, it was actually immediate and overwhelming public backlash about his grossly inappropriate use of the corpse of a person who died by suicide just to get social media views.
Social media, is, at it’s heart, *social*. In this case it was the overwhelming public consciousness about the seriousness of suicide and mental health challenges that led to the backlash, and severe public and professional consequences for both Logan Paul, as well as YouTube. In fact there are community “standards,” often informal and just socially understood, that seemed to pressure the removal of this video, led to increased efforts YouTube, Google, and others to improve strategies for responsible coverage of suicide on social media.
With more people “coming out” about their lived experience of suicide, in fact, many people responded with social media about suicide that was actually inspiring. Like this:
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