Let me start this blog off with stating that in no way do I condone David Dobrik’s complicity with the rape allegations against his former friend and Youtube influencer, Durte Dom. David Dobrik has a long standing VLOG series that has generated hundreds of millions of views. He has quickly become a pop culture phenomenon and could be seen nearly on any media front. Unfortunately, David’s poor decision making in the types of content he created and posted on YouTube recently caught up with him.
There is no reason to get into the fine details. At this point, it is well known that Dobrik’s former associate Durte Dom has been accused of sexual assault. While it was not necessarily depicted that way in the video in question, Dobrik unfortunately made the decision to air the footage instead of withholding it. I don’t want to justify his actions by simply stating he was young and lacked foresight, but given his recent apology video and how thoroughly he explained his sorrow and bad decision making from the past, I genuinely believe he will have a shot at redemption down the road.
For what it’s worth, I do not believe Dobrik is bullshitting anyone in his video posted above. Sure, anyone can muster up some tears and make an apology video. People accusing Dobrik of only apologizing due to the fall off of his sponsors are simply ignorant. David has made it very well known that he doesn’t create content like this just for the money. The sheer amount of money he could have saved by not giving away cars, cash and countless expensive items to random people should prove that alone. For that reason alone, I don’t think the apology is to save his career. In my humble opinion, Dobrik seems as if he is genuinely at fault for being complicit in his former associates actions. While he himself did physically take part in the alleged sexual assault, he is at least man enough to admit fault in glorifying it.
With that said, I think it’s important for David to rebuild his image by publicly speaking out against sexual assault. Whether it be with various charity organizations or his own YouTube platform, this could be a great way to reach out to today’s youth and express to them how not to make the same kind of mistakes he did. Dobrik is one of the louder voices of this generation, so taking on projects like this could have some major influence. Simply put, I do not think Dobrik is a criminal. I thoroughly believe he was a teenager that got caught up in the world of Vlogging and had a tunnel vision to put out creative content as quickly as possible to his fanbase. His meteoric rise clearly put the blinders on, and now he is paying the price for it. He clearly lacked the foresight of what his involvement was in the the alleged case.
Do I think he should be let off the hook? Absolutely not. Do I think this is a teachable moment and an opportunity for him to educate young people on the horrors of sexual assault? Absolutely. David Dobrik has the ability to seek ultimate redemption, but he has to prove to the world that he is changed man by putting in the hard work.
The ball is in David’s court now. Hopefully he wrongs this right and we see him Vlogging again down the road.
