YouTube’s ‘Open Letter’ About Logan Paul Isn’t Very Open At All

YouTube’s corporate communications team doesn’t seem to understand the meaning of the words “open letter.”

On Tuesday, the video platform released a Twitter thread that it claimed was “an open letter to our community.”

The “open letter” thread appeared to be a response to the recent controversy over Logan Paul’s dead body video, but it was vague, oblique and the opposite of any definition of “open.”

An open letter to our community: Many of you have been frustrated with our lack of communication recently. You’re right to be. You deserve to know what’s going on. — YouTube (@YouTube) January 9, 2018

The “open letter” seemed to address Paul’s video titled “We Found a Dead Body in Japan’s Suicide Forest.” It shows the YouTube celebrity coming across a body and seeming to make light of the situation.

However, the “open letter” thread never mentions Paul by name nor what penalties he might face.

Like many others, we were upset by the video that was shared last week. — YouTube (@YouTube) January 9, 2018

Suicide is not a joke, nor should it ever be a driving force for views. As Anna Akana put it perfectly: “That body was a person someone loved. You do not walk into a suicide forest with a camera and claim mental health awareness.” — YouTube (@YouTube) January 9, 2018

We expect more of the creators who build their community on @YouTube, as we’re sure you do too. The channel violated our community guidelines, we acted accordingly, and we are looking at further consequences. — YouTube (@YouTube) January 9, 2018

YouTube did not mention what steps it took against Paul, nor did it mention that he, not YouTube, is the person who removed the controversial video from the platform.

The website did say it was taking steps to ensure a video like Paul’s will never be posted again.

It’s taken us a long time to respond, but we’ve been listening to everything you’ve been saying. We know that the actions of one creator can affect the entire community, so we’ll have more to share soon on steps we’re taking to ensure a video like this is never circulated again. — YouTube (@YouTube) January 9, 2018

HuffPost reached out to YouTube to get more specifics on what penalties Paul and others could face for videos that violate guidelines, but no one immediately responded.

However, many Twitter users were quick to call out YouTube for its slow, hypocritical reactions to the Paul controversy.

You didn’t act accordingly; the video was reviewed, approved & allowed on trending after it had 6 million views. Logan took the video down himself. YouTube put out a statement implying it was okay, until others spoke up. Any actions taken after were driven by others condemning it — Ben (@TrustedFlagger) January 9, 2018

If you actually cared, you would have responded by now. If you actually cared Logan Paul would be facing some sort of consequences. But you do not care, because you got a big paycheck from that traffic increase, right? — Doctor Cube (@DocCube) January 9, 2018

We are angry because you have double standards! Do better, act quicker, communicate with your creators (don’t send same email with same thing over and over again) and listen to your users or you will loose us all! — Peter Ik (@LpoolTech) January 9, 2018

Others just wanted a straight answer to concerns that weren’t openly addressed in the so-called open letter.

are you banning him? — Hannah K ? ハナ (@misshanake) January 9, 2018

… if your only concern is the money, say so. Don’t pretend to care unless you plan to do something that will actually make a difference. — Pan-cake??? (@_potato_god_) January 9, 2018

Make sure NOT to punish the entire community for Logan’s actions with another terrible “ad friendly” system. Delete Logan’s channel, get rid of his YouTube red show/movie or whatever he has. Stop letting him be featured in the “Trending” section. He needs to REALLY learn. — LeopoldTheBrave (@LeopoldTheBrave) January 9, 2018

Others just didn’t understand why YouTube never gives a straight answer about its working process.

I don’t understand why they’re always so vague about everything. They never ever address issues head on. They just make some dumb blanket statement that sounds the exact same for every issue they have. I’m starting to lose hope that anything will ever improve — CrankGameplays (@CrankGameplays) January 10, 2018

If you or someone you know needs help, call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. You can also text HELLO to 741-741 for free, 24-hour support from the Crisis Text Line. Outside of the U.S., please visit the International Association for Suicide Prevention for a database of resources.