Logan Paul, his controversial suicide forest vlog and the celebrities who commented

Logan Paul (Facebook/Logan Paul)

The top global story of the first week of January 2018 is about a video uploaded by Logan Paul, 22, a vlogger with more than 15 million YouTube subscribers collectively known as Logang. The video was taken in Aokigahara, a forest also known as The Sea of Trees and is located at the base of Mount Fuji, Japan.

In 2015, a film titled "The Sea of Trees" was made about an American man (Matthew McConaughey) and a Japanese man (Ken Watanabe) who have a life-changing encounter in Aokigahara where they are supposed to attempt suicide. Written by Chris Sparling and directed by Gus Van Sant, the film competed for the Palme d'Or at the 68th Cannes Film Festival but lost to the French film "Dheepan."

Called a suicide forest, Aokigahara is one of the most prevalent suicide sites in the world. Paul took a video of a Japanese man who just killed himself by hanging in this forest and uploaded it on YouTube on December 31, 2017.

The suicide forest video immediately went viral. Among the celebrities who took to social media to slam the vlogger for the video were his fellow YouTuber Philip DeFranco, 32, "The Burning Woman" actor Aaron Paul, 38, "Game of Thrones" star Sophie Turner, 21, and writer Lauren Duca, 27. 

Phil McGraw, 67, who is professionally known as Dr. Phil, also weighed in saying Logan did commit a mistake but he deserved forgiveness. The "Dr. Phil" host explained to Entertainment Tonight that, as a father with two sons, he is "a little extra forgiving" about the controversy involving the young vlogger. 

Chrissy Teigen, 32, has a different take on the issue, as well. The model who is married to John Legend, 39, took to social media to suggest that while Logan's suicide forest vlog is sick and stupid, there is a different way to deal with it. 

Teigen shared a personal anecdote on choosing to simply never wear or purchase the products of a certain clothing company whose designers said things about IVF children that she found horrible. She implied that instead of trying to end Logan's career, his critics should simply stop watching his videos. 

The video in question has been deleted since. Logan also decided to take a break from vlogging but before that, he posted an apology video on YouTube. Watch it here: