David Dobrik is Officially Canceled, and It’s Been a Long Time Coming
Social media is an incredibly prominent part of daily life, and it can feel like nothing that anyone does or says is private anymore. Any interaction can be posted on Twitter just seconds after it happens, photos taken at social events are uploaded to Instagram almost immediately, and almost anything can go viral within just a few short hours of being posted. Because of this, “Cancel Culture” has been created which allows for the online community to potentially end, or “cancel,” a celebrity or influencer’s career. When the general public deems something that a famous person post or says to be racist, sexist, homophobic, or hateful in any other way, they take it upon themselves to spread this information far and wide. This informs the public of exactly what has happened and prevents these figures from having a platform to spread hate.
Because social media plays a major role in many lives, people are becoming more cautious of their online presence out of fear of being “canceled,” but that still is not enough in some cases. People have dug up old videos and photos of celebrities doing blackface or saying the N-word from years, sometimes even decades ago, and canceled those influencers for it.
Lots of people argue that Cancel Culture does far more harm than good because holding people accountable for mistakes that they made when they were young is unfair. Those people also tend to believe that after someone has apologized for their actions, they should be forgiven and given a clean slate to start over. On the other hand, many people think that there are no excuses for using large platforms to spread hate and that those who do just that should not be able to get off the hook that easily. That group also frequently believes that once someone has proven that they cannot spread positive messages, they should not be allowed to spread any messages at all. The ethics of cancel culture have been debated heatedly over the past couple of years because of its unignorable persistence throughout our culture. This especially applies right now with popular vlogger David Dobrik.
Dobrik became incredibly popular through his group of friends who called themselves the “Vlog Squad”. They are a large group of influencers who filmed content together, made YouTube channels together, and sometimes lived together or dated each other. Dobrik is essentially the leader of the group, having the most followers and the biggest name in the business. He makes short vlogs of him and his friends goofing off, playing games, doing challenges, and spending copious amounts of money on unnecessary things. Up until recently, his account was thriving and the internet loved him, but now, things are changing in his world.
A short while ago a former member of the Vlog Squad named Seth Francois came forward about why he left the group. He talked about a specific skit where Dobrik had pulled an arguably unkind prank on him that made him uncomfortable. During an interview with the H3 podcast, Francois recalled, “It was a video where David set up with Jason Nash and Corinna and said that I was supposed to do a make-out scene with Corinna and he was gonna have her in an old man mask and then switched her out with Jason Nash. After Jason pulled off his mask, I realized that I was just touched by someone I did not consent to.” This revelation caused a lot of uproar in the media, as people were in shock that the skit was not scripted and that Francois did not consent to what he was doing. It also led other former members of the group to speak out about their own issues with Dobrik.
Trisha Paytas, a huge influencer who posts videos on just about every topic and every platform called Dobrik out on his inappropriate and overall unkind behavior. On another H3H3 podcast, she claimed that he was being too “tightlipped” about the allegations against him despite all of the press about them and that he had been “doing some sh**ty sh*t” to his friends for a very long time. She has claimed many times on her TikTok that the group, David Dobrick and Jason Nash specifically, created a “toxic and manipulative environment” that she knew she had to get out of.
After both Dobrik’s former friends spoke up, many fans began to notice more toxic behavior in his videos. There were dozens of instances of fat-shaming towards another influencer in the group Nick Antonyan a.k.a. “Jonah.” Another former friend of his, BigNik, claimed that the group was toxic and overall “a huge cult with demonic energy.” He also stated in that episode, “I felt worthless being in those videos. I was like, Dude, why am I even, like, here? What’s the point in my existence? Because I was just treated like this punching bag.”
Shortly after this, what was left of Dobrick’s online world came crashing down when one of his close friends and Vlog Squad members named Dominykas Zeglaitis, or Dom for short, was accused of raping a woman who was being filmed as an extra in a music video. The anonymous victim claims that it happened after David had told friends to get alcohol for her even though she was under twenty-one at the time. These accusations were the final straw for his career, so Dobrik finally decided to open his mouth and say something about them.
He posted a two-and-a-half-minute video on his channel titled “Let’s talk” where he halfheartedly addressed all of the heat that he had been getting. He took down some of the videos that others had spoken out about and conveyed that he “[didn’t] want them up because I have grown as a content creator and as a person.” The excuses he made were not only the breaking point for his fans but his sponsors as well. DoorDash, EA Sports, HBO, Honey, and Dollar Shave Club, all massive corporations with undeniable power and influence all dropped him shortly after the allegations and apology video.
Just like that, after a few short days, David Dobrik had been canceled. He lost over 100,000 followers on his main YouTube channel in the past week and has few to no brands supporting him anymore. His reputation has been tarnished and his career has been ruined, demonstrating the power cancel culture has over modern influencers’ lives. Whether it is a good power or a dangerous one, no one can argue that Cancel Culture is an important tool in today’s society to determine who gets a platform for their voices and ideas to be heard.
By Liza Tewari