David Dobrik Returns to YouTube After Months Away Due to Ongoing Controversies

Trigger warning: this article discusses sexual assault.

On Tuesday last week, YouTube personality and vlogger David Dobrik made his way back onto the video sharing platform with a new vlog (and an Instagram post), after a several month long hiatus since being called out for his problematic behaviour and his role in several assault allegations.

Much like the return of Shane Dawson to YouTube, fans, viewers and other creators were not keen about David’s sudden return (especially on Twitter).

In the vlog, David continued on with his usual overly expressive style of content featuring members of the ‘Vlog Squad’. For context, the 'Vlog Squad' is essentially just a bunch of David’s other YouTube friends.

Except, he only made a brief mention of the previous controversies that led to him to take a break from YouTube. 

We’re not going to include the vlog here so as to not give David a platform, however, you can see it on his YouTube channel now if you want to watch it.

TODAY IN SHADE: Many finding it an interesting coincidence that David Dobrik returned on the first Tuesday after the end of Frenemies, and will be posting on Tuesdays moving forward. pic.twitter.com/tLcyogGP6V

— Def Noodles (@defnoodles) June 16, 2021

Who is David Dobrik?

In case you’re not super up to date with YouTube personalities, David is a 27-year-old vlogger and podcaster.

He rose to fame on Vine in 2013, but when the app was shut down in late 2016, David moved to YouTube where he now boasts a following of 18.3 million.

While David is now well known for his controversies, before all the allegations came out, David was an immensely popular YouTuber regarded as generous, trendy, and funny by a mixture of adult, teen and child fans.

David is the leader of the Vlog Squad and continues to invite friends and other vloggers into the group to film with him.

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by DAVID DOBRIK (@daviddobrik)

So, why was David cancelled earlier in the year?

To understand why the internet is justifiably mad, we need to go back to late March when a series of sexual assault allegations came out against several members of the Vlog Squad.

Essentially, a woman (name omitted for privacy) who appeared in one of David’s YouTube videos, confessed to Insider that she had been raped by Dominykas Zeglaitis (or Durte Dom as he’s most well known) after being given alcohol by the group and coerced into non-consensual sexual activity.

David filmed the woman is his apartment, right before the assault took place, and then a few days later uploaded the video to YouTube with a title that refers to her participating in (consensual) sexual acts.

The video was kept up on David’s channel for months, and before it was deleted as per the woman’s request, it had received over 5 million views.

While David wasn’t accused of sexual assault, he was allegedly complicit in allowing the assault to happen and failing to protect the woman from Dom.

David also failed to acknowledge the power imbalances that existed in the situation that led to the woman’s assault, considering her and the friend she was with were both fans of David and the Vlog Squad before the assault took place.

For clarity, Dom was also cancelled by the online community but hasn’t yet faced any criminal charges for the accusations made against him.

On top of this, back in February, ex-Vlog Squad member Seth Francois appeared on the H3 After Dark podcast claiming that David and the rest of the Vlog Squad had pressured him into non-consensual sexual pranks, racially insensitive jokes and “traumatising content.”

Fellow ex-Vlog Squad member Nik Keswani (or BigNik) also appeared on the H3 After Dark Podcast in early February claiming that the Vlog Squad made him feel “worthless” and “like a punching bag.”

What was David’s response?

At first, when the only allegations that had been made were from ex-Vlog Squad members, David and the rest of the Vlog Squad kept quiet until David finally posted an apology video to his ‘VIEWS’ channel on 17 March.

As you could have guessed, this apology was not taken well, and the comments are now turned off.

Again, we’re not going to include it here, but you can still see it on his VIEWS channel.

Very quickly David started losing subscribers, partners and brands that wanted to distance themselves from the content creator. 

Due to this massive hit to his channel and career, David posted a second apology video—this time to his main channel—directly addressing the sexual assault allegations, and formally apologising to the woman involved. He also announced that he was taking a “serious” break from the platform.

Finally, on 25 March, YouTube demonetised all of David’s three channels.

Here’s why the internet isn’t happy.

As most people expect with ‘cancel culture’, personalities who have been called out for inappropriate behaviour tend to feel the consequences of their actions and lose their influence and place in the limelight.

However, it seems that despite the severity of David’s controversy, it is clear that he is still able to maintain a large following of supporters and make his way back onto the platform—just like Shane Dawson.

I love how not even 2 months ago people were canceling David dobrik and now all of a sudden everyone is so happy he posted again?????? pic.twitter.com/IdDdykcvNi

— shyla🥀 (@itsshylaaa) June 15, 2021

david dobrik posts a vlog and everyone forgets he knew a girl got raped and hid it WHILE filming one of his videos. i just don't get it pic.twitter.com/BOCH612JkN

— e (@eraseplays) June 15, 2021

not david dobrik posting again. we didn’t forget pic.twitter.com/n3OfOhMKbu

— zach ∞ (@boluvr) June 15, 2021

This is not the first time internet personalities have gotten away with attempting redemption arcs. YouTuber Logan Paul is a clear example of this when he returned to the platform after sharing footage of a deceased person in a Japanese forest to his vlogging channel.

For now, this looks like the only new video to appear on any of David’s channels, but considering the online reaction, it might stay that way.

Watch this space for more deets.

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(Update 23/06/2021): David has uploaded a second new video to his YouTube channel as per his promised "new vlogs every Tuesday" schedule, so it looks like he will continue to upload as previously despite the backlash from the online community.

Header Image: YouTube (@daviddobrik)