YouTube star punished over suicide video

^{Photo from Tubefilter.com}

YouTube has cut business ties with Logan Paul, the hugely popular vlogger who posted a video showing the body of an apparent suicide victim in Japan.

Paul's channels were removed from YouTube's Google Preferred programme, where brands sell ads on the top 5% of the platform's content creators.

YouTube also said it had put on hold original projects with the US vlogger, BBC News reports.

Paul posted the video with a man's body on 31 December, triggering widespread criticism.

The video showed him and his friends at the Aokigahara forest at the base of Mount Fuji, known to be a frequent site of suicides.

Going in to film the "haunted" forest, they come across a man's body and are shocked but also make jokes.

The identity of the deceased man is not known.