YouTube star David Dobrik has released a second apology video amid ongoing sexual assault allegations against his content creator group, the Vlog Squad, and brands rapidly cutting ties with him.
Early Tuesday morning, Dobrik shared a video telling fans: “I’ve put myself in a lot of situations where I need to apologize for my past actions and I’ve never done this correctly. I’ve never done this respectfully, and my last video is a testament to that. I don’t want to defend that video. I don’t want to delete that video. I just want to be clear.”
The video Dobrik referred to, titled “Let’s talk” and shared on Dobrik’s less-followed YouTube page, was in response to a report on Insider detailing an alleged rape that occurred while members of the Vlog Squad filmed. A woman claims that in 2018, Vlog Squad member Dominykas Zeglaitis, aka Durte Dom, raped her, and that Dobrik had filmed the woman entering the room where it occurred and later uploaded the clip to his YouTube channel. The clip was later removed at the woman’s request.
The “Let’s talk” video, which includes Dobrik saying “consent is something that’s super, super important to me,” was widely criticized for being shared to a smaller audience, having the comments turned off and overall missing “the mark.”
Dobrik explains in his second apology video that it “felt crazy to me to accept that there was some kind of toxicity or power dynamic in my friend group, but I hope other creators will take a moment to look at where the jokes end and where the feelings begin.”
He goes on to say he fully believes the “woman who came out against Dom and said she was sexually assaulted and raped by him” and that he “should have never posted” the clip of her on his channel. He apologized to her for enabling his friends and making her and her friends feel “like their safety and values were compromised.”
The creator also said he’d be taking a partial break from social media “because I realized there’s a serious lack of infrastructure when I make any kind of content and I want to be able to have a place of checks and balances.”
This second video comes in the wake of companies including DoorDash, HelloFresh, EA Sports and Dollar Shave Club cutting all ties with Dobrik and the Vlog Squad over the weekend. As of Monday, prior to Dobrik’s second video being posted, even more companies withdrew their support, including Honey, Frank’s RedHot, SeatGeek and Chipotle.
On Tuesday, dating app Bumble said it too would be severing a relationship with Dobrik.
“We’ve always had a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to abuse, misogyny or threatening behavior of any kind... we had requested all Bumble content be permanently removed and can confirm we will not be working with David or any of his team again,” the company said in a statement to PopCrave.