In the past weeks, David Dobrik has been under mounting heat over pranks and behaviors associated with his past YouTube blogs. His friend Scotty Sire spoke out in defense of David’s intentions in a now-deleted video, but David has remained silent until a few hours ago when he uploaded a 2:31 minute video to his podcast channel following an explosive Insider article that alleges former vlog squad member Dom Zeglaitis raped a woman in 2018.
In the short video, which is titled “Let’s talk,” David begins by noting that he’s made over 600 videos in his career along with countless TikToks, Vines, Tweets, etc. “I’m obsessed with what I do. I love being able to make people happy for a living,” he expresses before segueing into the importance he says he places on consent.
“Consent is something that is super, super important to me,” he says. “Whether I’m shooting with a friend or shooting with a stranger, I always make sure that whatever video I’m putting out I have approval from that person.”
“I also acknowledge that there’s times when a person can change their mind,” he adds. “And they decide that they no longer want to be associated, they no longer want to be in the video that I’m putting up and I take the video down. And there’s also been moments where I’ve looked back on videos and I realized that these don’t represent me anymore and they’re hurtful to other people and I don’t want them up because I’ve grown as a content creator and as a person and I don’t agree with some of the videos that I’ve posted.”
David then names the only person he’s apologizing to in the video: Seth (Francois,) who has spoken out about feeling sexually assaulted and manipulated by two pranks David played on him to kiss women dressed in costumes who ended up being Jason Nash.
“With the Seth situation, I’m sorry to Seth because, like I said, I just want to make videos where everybody in it, you know, whether you’re participating or watching, is enjoying and having a good time and I missed the mark with that one and I’m really sorry. I truly, truly am.”
Seth has also been outspoken about the numerous racist jokes and bits the group directed towards him during his stint creating content with them, but David does not directly address these in his video. In his apology video, David alludes to the kissing prank videos, but does not give details about what he is apologizing for.
David continues to be vague as the video progresses and he distances himself from former friends he says he’s now disappointed with. Again, he gives no details about what exactly he’s talking about, but he does mention Dom by name.
“With people in my life that I don’t film with anymore, like Dom, and you know, the other people that I no longer film with, I chose to distance myself because I don’t align with some of the actions and I don’t stand for any kind of misconduct and I’ve been really disappointed by some of my friends. And, for that reason, I’ve separated from a lot of them.”
“I think, with any video I make, my main purpose is to make people happy and inspire people and I don’t want anything to get in the way of that. I’m sorry if I let you down and things like that won’t happen again. I’ve learned from my mistakes and I also believe that actions speak a lot louder than words. And, you can take my word for it that I’m gonna change but I’ll also show you and I’ll prove to you that the mistakes I made before won’t be happening again. But yeah. That’s it. Alright, I love you guys, I’ll see you later.”
There is a portion of the Insider article about the harrowing events that happened one night in 2018 to a college student named Hannah, but the full details of the horrifying night and the David Dobrik vlog that came from the footage he recorded that night can be read behind a paywall at Business Insider.
UPDATE: David has issued a more explicit and detailed apology as of 3/22/2021.
