David Dobrik and his friends (The Vlog Squad) had a massive portion of the internet in a chokehold. His content was easy to watch and enjoyable. Overall, he’s just been a palatable white guy with a fun life/friend group in Los Angeles. Yet, within all the chaos in his content, I think many viewers brushed over some shady behavior that should’ve been a red flag. Granted, a lot of his audience was younger. At his peak, unfortunately, not a lot of attention was being paid to the shady gross things celebrities or ‘influencers’ do. Â
Recently, allegations have been made about Dobrik and some of his buddies. Some from people who used to be affiliated with him or just girls who happened to get caught in the Vlog Squad’s crossfire. The initial claims were about Dobrik’s inappropriate behavior towards his “friends” (uncomfortable bits, using people just to make fun of them, etc.) More recently, several girls have come forward to acknowledge how David and other members of the Vlog Squad were creepy/inappropriate towards them. Most notably, people are bringing up a (now deleted) vlog from 2018. David and his little friends invited a group of teenage girls into Dom’s apartment (one of Dobrik’s buddies) and ended up buying them alcohol. One of the girls who attended that night alleges that Dom took advantage of her when she was clearly too drunk to give consent. The other girls in attendance, one of which was sober, defend the claim and acknowledge that the guys very clearly knew how intoxicated the girls were. This wasn’t the only video where non consensual s*x is brought up or joked about. Dom’s whole ‘character’ was supposed to be a creepy s*x addict… unsure where the character ends and his real identity begins, but whatever. Like that’s literally on the internet forever LOL. Humiliating and shameful for all of them.Â
That’s a brief overview for the sake of sparing any uncomfortable details. In 2018, David Dobrik and the Vlog Squad were known individuals. They had a presence on Youtube and social media; they had power. The incident the girls describe is clearly just an abuse of power, and a traumatic event resulted from what was intended to be something to laugh at, which is a miserable thing to acknowledge. It simply wasn’t a big deal for a while to behave inappropriately towards people. Even when it was posted on the internet for millions to see, it’s only being discussed now. They were just total douchebags on camera, and in MASSES, people ate it all up. Really sucks. It’s important to discuss behavior like this and emphasize that it’s unacceptable and always has been, but no matter how many discussions we have it seems like there’s a common theme here.Â
Dobrik released a two-minute apology. Two minutes, which is shorter than the vlogs he used to upload. These two minutes are supposed to make up for, like, all of that? That ‘apology’ is just supposed to be enough for the victim(s) of Dobrik/those associated’s behavior. Two minutes. Other members of the Vlog Squad who have been under scrutiny also released some apologies. Still, they all follow the same narrative, and there’s just a lot of deflection. It’s weird because what happened happened, and an apology doesn’t do much for the people impacted. None of what happened should have happened in the first place. Many brands that sponsored Dobrik are dropping him, though, which I guess is cool, but the guy still has a ridiculous amount of money and fame. As much as people want to hold the group accountable for their actions, not much changes in the grand scheme of things. I think it’s better not to perceive celebrities/influencers and just observe them at surface level. That way, when the world finds out they’re crappy people, it comes as less of a shock. Do better.Â
