YouTube has temporarily suspended all of Logan Paul‘s ad revenue through the streaming service following what it’s calling a “recent pattern of behavior.”
The controversial 22-year-old vlogger has been back on the platform for about two weeks following a brief self-imposed hiatus. After facing backlash for a vlog of himself discovering the body of an apparent suicide victim, Paul took a short break to reflect on his video-making priorities and let the dust settle. At the time, prominent members of the YouTube community had called for the streaming giant to delete Paul’s channel altogether. The company ended up severing its upcoming paid contracts with the YouTuber and promising to re-tool its policies site-wide when it comes to anti-social behavior.
It didn’t take long for Paul to fall into old habits, though. He ended his hiatus with a heartfelt clip about suicide prevention, which seemed like a step in a good direction. But he quickly shifted gears into posting to the kind of content subscribers may be more used to seeing from him. In the days since Paul has been back in action, he has uploaded videos of himself encouraging people to take the Tide Pod challenge and shocking a dead rat with a taser. The latter got him in trouble with PETA, who called the video inhumane just yesterday.
YouTube announced the decision to suspend Paul’s ad revenue early Friday morning.
In response to Logan Paul’s recent pattern of behavior, we’ve temporarily suspended ads on his channels.
— YouTube Creators (@YouTubeCreators) February 9, 2018
“After careful consideration, we have decided to temporarily suspend ads on Logan Paul’s YouTube channels,” the company wrote in a press release. “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.”
According to the press release, Paul’s repeated failure to correctly label his videos for YouTube’s advertisers seems to be his main offense. The company takes great care to outline its advertising policies in the release, which might mean that advertisers are starting to push back about working with the company if it means they’ll be paired with creators like Paul.
“We aren’t telling you what to create — each and every creator on YouTube is unique and contributes to the vibrancy of YouTube,” the company wrote. “However, advertisers also have a choice about where to show their ads. As with everything related to YouTube, use your common sense, don’t abuse the site, and be respectful of others… If you want to upload content that does not comply with these guidelines, you should turn off ads on individual videos. This option allows you to opt out of monetization for any videos that are not advertiser friendly while you remain in the YouTube Partner Program. Keep in mind that if you monetize content that violates our guidelines, you may lose access to monetization features.”
For the time being, this seems like a flex of that “you may lose access” rule.
Paul has yet to comment on his suspension.
