Popular YouTuber David Dobrik is facing backlash following a report alleging sexual misconduct involving a former member in his video team.
On March 17, website Insider published a report where a woman claimed she was raped by Dominykas Zeglaitis, who goes by the online persona Durte Dom and was part of Dobrik’s vlog Squad.
She claimed to have been plied with alcohol and did not consent to sexual activity with Zeglaitis.
A scene where the woman was seen entering Zeglaitis’s bedroom with him was recorded by Dobrik, who then uploaded the footage onto YouTube as a vlog titled “SHE SHOULD HAVE NOT PLAYED WITH FIRE!!” in 2018.
Insider stated that the video was deleted in 2019 at the woman’s request. At the time, it had already received five million views.
The website further stated that Zeglaitis and Dobrik did not respond to requests for comments about the allegations.
Dobrik released a video to “address conversations that has been going on the Internet” on March 17 titled “Let’s Talk”.
He said that he has made over 600 videos throughout his career as a YouTuber and maintained that consent “is super important”.
Dobrik claimed that he would never upload content without getting prior approval from the person featured in the video, adding that he would also remove videos that have been uploaded whenever there are such requests.
He also apologised to former Vlog Squad member Joseth “Seth” Francois for a video he uploaded back in 2017.
On Feb 24, Francois told BuzzFeed News that he realised that he had been sexually assaulted after Dobrik pulled a prank on him to make him kiss Jason Nash, another member of his Vlog Squad. Francois said he was blindfolded at the time and was made to believe that he was kissing someone else.
Dobrik said he “missed the mark” for orchestrating the prank. He also shared that he no longer films with Zeglaitis and has made the decision to distance himself from certain people.
“I’ve been disappointed by some of my friends and for that reason, I’ve separated from a lot of them,” he said, adding that he will prove to viewers that he will not repeat the same mistakes.
Dobrik has turned off the comments section for the video which has received more than five million views since it was uploaded onto his Views channel, which has 1.69 million subscribers.
Entertainment Tonight reported that since the sexual misconduct allegations came to light, Dobrik has been dropped by sponsors such as DoorDash, HelloFresh and Dollar Shave Club.
Venture capital firm Spark Capital posted a statement on Twitter saying it has made a decision to sever all ties with Dispo, a photo-sharing app co-founded by Dobrik. Last month, the firm led a Series A funding event to raise US$20mil (RM82.22mil) for Dispo.
Meanwhile, figures on social media analytics site Social Blade showed that Dobrik’s main YouTube channel, which had more than 18 million subscribers, has lost more than 100,000 followers since March 17. Insider also reported that figures showed that Dobrik has lost 66 million views, indicating that he may be in the process of removing some videos.
Dobrik, 24, has been making online content since 2016 and has achieved more than 800 million views on his main YouTube channel.
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