For Millennials. By Millennials.
This week has been rough, especially for David Dobrik and his Vlog Squad. The mess has gotten to the point that fans have started questioning Squad’s motives all along. Durte Dom (Dominykas Zeglaitis), the ex-member of Vlog Squad and one of David Dobrik’s school mates, has reportedly assaulted not just one, but more females in the past. While some of the Vlog squad members have come up with their responses/apologies while others are staying silent, one person has finally come forward with the truth now. Jeff Wittek has deleted his previous video on the incident and shared a new and honest one.
Jeff Wittek acknowledges he was wrong
The whole brand of David Dobrik and his Vlog squad revolved around making jokes, all kinds of jokes, and not taking accountability. Whenever an issue was raised, it was handled off-the-camera. The squad never made a statement. And they even handled the whole Trisha Paytas situation during 2019 in the worst way possible. What was the worse part? People believed them over victims.
It’s not the first time someone has exposed David Dobrik’s associate Durte Dom for s*xual assault. AH came forward with her assault incident in 2017. Nothing was done at that point since Durte Dom made an apology video in a way that made him look good by holding himself accountable while still not openly addressing the main issue. Vlog Squad kept him a member of the squad and they continued making vlogs, characterizing him as a h*rny person. But Jeff Wittek has come clean with the facts now. He has deleted his previous video because he acted out of frustration in it.
There was a lot of things I said wrong and did wrong in that video. Because I acted out of emotions, and impulse, and frustration as my name was mentioned in it.
Jeff Wittek confessed that he didn’t want to discredit the victim. But he ended up discrediting the [Insider] reporter and his part in the story. All of that discredited the whole story.
I feel horrible about it and I just want to apologize.
Jeff Wittek has taken some time to think about the incident, the courage Hannah showed to come forward with her s*xual assault, and his selfishness to remove his name from the whole incident. He also feels bad for continuing making such jokes in their vlogs.
David Dobrik hid an important information related to Durte Dom
We all have seen David Dobrik’s second apology video by now. And many are appreciating him to hold himself accountable for giving Durte Dom a platform and not believing the victims. However, Jeff Wittek’s latest video has shed some light on David Dobrik’s 2nd apology video. In his new video, Jeff has confirmed that David Dobrik did not tell him about removing that vlog from his channel, as well as the reason that made him delete that vlog.
In David’s video he said that he got the text three months after the incident happened. I wasn’t filled in on this. For whatever reasons, I don’t know if he thought that I would attack Dom. or maybe, he didn’t want to tell anyone to protect his squeaky clean brand at the time.
Jeff Wittek says there is no excuse for hiding such vital information from him. It’s not something someone should hide. He wasn’t told while he was a part of the video. Jeff was acting in bits for that vlog. He confessed that he was looking inside the room, but he did not witness anything.
But something horrible did happen. And people knew about it. And they didn’t tell me. I didn’t find out until the reporter reached out about this article.
Jeff Wittek’s first response to the situation was to act out of impulse and anger. Having his name linked to a s*xual assault made him lose his temper.
Talking about his life
In his video, Jeff also expressed his appreciation of Hannah’s courage to talk about her traumatic experience with Durte Dom. He also gave a hint about his personal experience with someone, but he said he is scared of the criticism and could not come out with his story.
The criticism I would get in return, I don’t know if I would be able to deal with it. There is no contracts, there’s no NDAs, no lawsuits. I just don’t know if I could take it cause I know how I got hurt was stupid. And I’m embarrassed of it.
Jeff Wittek also explained that he has gone through various eye and head surgeries. He had brain trauma and that’s why he stutter sometimes. When Ethan Klein asked him about the article whether he had read it, Jeff did not want to tell them that he did not read it. He could not read it because of his eye issue and blurriness. So he had someone read it to him, and he confessed that he should’ve paid more attention on the details mentioned in the article.
Jeff Wittek talks about the worst part of the s*xual assault incident
While talking about how he defended his friend instead of doing the right thing, Jeff Wittek highlighted the worst part of it all.
This girl spoke up and told her story..three months after it happened. And then everybody continued to keep making these jokes. Including myself. If I was the victim and I continued to watch these videos, and see that I [Jeff] was still associating with Dom. I made a joke with Dom. I literally said something based off a character that we all thought that this was just a character, when he was a known abuser.
Making jokes about it after people knew about the incident didn’t sit right with Jeff.
I’m gonna take a step back. I’m gonna be accountable for myself.
Hinting others to come forward
Jeff Wittek further added that he is going to work on himself as these recent incident has proven he needs to work on some things. He also shared that his video might get a million dislikes but there might be someone who would come forward with their story. He also encouraged s*xual assault victims as well as people who know someone who was assaulted, to talk to a professional.
Jeff also highlighted that the current Durte Dom situation is not an entertainment. Even though many people are following the story just as a source of entertainment.
It’s a girl’s life. It’s a thing she has to live with for the rest of her life. And if you’re making money on it, I understand.
He called out news sources to not just make money out of this news, but do something about it as well.
I don’t give a f*ck what everybody else does. I can’t be accountable for anybody but myself.
Jeff Wittek chose to donate to RAINN, a charity for s*xual assault victims. They also have a hotline where you can talk and do it for free.
