YouTube has issued an official statement in regards to Logan Paul's recently released (and since removed) controversial video that featured a dead body. The video, which was uploaded on December 31, 2017, and removed by Logan Paul on his own accord, features the popular YouTuber and his friends visiting the famous Suicide Forest in Japan. They discover a dead body, allegedly someone who killed themselves, and showed it off in the video and even used the image as the thumbnail. This caused a whirlwind of controversy and now, YouTube has issued an official response. Here's what they had to say about it.

"Our hearts go out to the family of the person featured in the video. YouTube prohibits violent or gory content posted in a shocking, sensational or disrespectful manner. If a video is graphic, it can only remain on the site when supported by appropriate educational or documentary information and in some cases it will be age-gated. We partner with safety groups such as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline to provide educational resources that are incorporated in our YouTube Safety Center."

Given the graphic nature of the content depicted in the video posted by Logan Paul to his YouTube channel, which has 15 million subscribers, many have been very upset and have called for YouTube to take action. "I've never faced criticism like this before, because I've never made a mistake like this before. 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," said Paul in a tweet about the video. More recently, he released a video on Twitter, providing a statement about the video that was posted.

"The reactions that you saw on tape were raw, unfiltered. None of us knew how to act or feel. I should have never posted the video, I should have put the cameras down and stopped recording what we were going through. There were a lot of things I should have done differently, but I didn't. And for that, from the bottom of my heart, I am sorry."

Even though Logan Paul has apologized, that hasn't been enough for many. Some of his fellow YouTubers, including Ross O'Donovan and Philip DeFranco, have called for YouTube to take action against Paul for posting the video. Even many of Paul's followers are upset about the video. Though, some have also come out to defend him for posting it. The video violated several terms of service, according to YouTube's standards agreement, which content providers agree to adhere to.

"It's not okay to post violent or gory content that's primarily intended to be shocking, sensational, or gratuitous. If a video is particularly graphic or disturbing, it should be balanced with additional context and information.If posting graphic content in a news, documentary, scientific, or artistic context, please be mindful to provide enough information to help people understand what's going on. In some cases, content may be so violent or shocking that no amount of context will allow that content to remain on our platforms. Lastly, don't encourage others to commit specific acts of violence. If the violence shown in your video is particularly graphic, please make sure to post as much information as possible in the title and metadata to help viewers understand what they are seeing."

At the present time, it hasn't been made clear if YouTube will punish Logan Paul for posting the video. Perhaps more importantly, we'll have to see what the long-term consequences of this video making its way to YouTube in the first place will be for content providers overall. You can check out the full response from Logan Paul about the video, in addition to other social media reactions, for yourself below.