David Dobrik is one of the most successful Youtubers/influencers of our time. He is known not only for being one of the nicest content creators, but also for being squeaky clean when it comes to any type of controversy. But how did he maintain this image when most of his vlogs consisted of making inappropriate jokes about his “friends” and hanging out with drunk underage girls? Probably because he can throw his money at any problem to make it go away. I mean, how can anyone look down upon someone who gives away Tesla’s to his fans? I, personally, have never watched any of David Dobrik’s content, and now that all of these controversies surrounding him and the Vlog Squad are coming to light, I am proud to admit that I’m not responsible for a dime that man has made.
Before diving into everything that David Dobrik enabled, we need to give credit to the woman who was strong enough to call him out first: Trisha Paytas. Now, Trisha Paytas is no stranger to controversy herself (and was even apart of The Vlog Squad when some of these horrid events took place) but, without her finally speaking up about Dobrik on her podcast “Frenemies,” other victims of his wrongdoings most likely wouldn’t have done so themselves.
The controversy began when Paytas opened up about how uncomfortable her time with the Vlog Squad was. She reflected upon stories in which Dobrik would violate her privacy by filming her naked without her consent and filming her having sex with her boyfriend at the time, Jason Nash. After more and more allegations came to light, it became clear that lack of consent is Dobrik’s biggest issue when it comes to making his content. Shortly after that episode of “Frenemies” aired, another former Vlog Squad member called into the podcast to reflect upon a time where Dobrik failed to ask for consent. This member was Seth Francois. In this specific incident, Francois talks about a popular prank that Dobrik played on him where he consented to kissing Corinna Kopf, but was pranked into kissing Jason Nash instead. Regardless of whether or not viewers thought this was a harmless prank, Francois did not consent to kissing Nash and categorized this incident as sexual assault. To make things even worse, Dobrik was caught saying that the prank was particularly comedic because he knew that homosexuality was not accepted in the community in which Francois grew up. In response to these accusations, Dobrik resorted to deleting the clips instead of immediately issuing an apology.
After those allegations, things got pretty quiet for a couple of weeks about the whole situation. It seemed as though no one was taking Paytas, and co-host Ethan Klein, seriously enough. Flash forward to March 2021, an article from Business Insider was published highlighting allegations from a girl featured in one of Dobrik’s vlogs. In this, the girl claimed she was raped by famous Vlog Squad member, Durte Dom, in 2018. The video itself was about group sex, and showed this girl and her group of friends (all underage) getting violently drunk and being coerced into sexual activity. Trisha Paytas claimed that the Vlog Squad would often purchase alcohol for underage girls in an effort to make their content more exciting. Since then, multiple other allegations about the Vlog Squad have come to light.
Other Vlog Squad members have since released their own videos either denying or apologizing for the inconsiderate content, but none were worse than Dobriks’ himself. On March 16 2021, Dobrik released an apology video titled “Let’s Talk.” So let’s talk then David. The video, as most Youtube apologies go, was incredibly staged and insincere. He claimed that “consent is the heart of his content” which clearly is not the case. If that was so, the people involved wouldn’t have called him out for being problematic. His fanbase even went as far as to call these allegations fake because they came years later and say it is all for “clout.” Blaming victims is an entire other topic that I could write a dissertation on, but what people tend to underestimate is the power of money and a good image. Victims were afraid to come out about Dobrik because they are aware that the public would react this way about someone who is so positively perceived. Even more so, it’s common knowledge that people end up signing Non Disclosure Agreements or are paid hush money instead when it comes to figures this famous.
Dobrik’s second, more raw apology video, released March 23, 2021. This one was even worse considering it came after he lost a substantial amount of subscribers and brand deals. Other Vlog Squad content that has since been deemed inappropriate is Dobrik constantly calling former member Gabbie Hanna fat and ugly and basing his entire channel around the embarrassment of his so called “friends.” Dobrik also tends to focus a lot of his content on sex, particularly other people’s sex lives, which is problematic in itself.
Regardless of your prior opinions about the Vlog Squad, it’s hard to deny that they are an extremely controversial group and need to be held accountable for their actions. None of these people deserve their platforms, not even Dobrik seeing that he enabled everything. Losing brand deals is one thing, but I’d like to see legal action taken against Durte Dom and any other member(s) of the Vlog Squad who committed literal crimes in the name of David Dobrik content.