For Millennials. By Millennials.
David Dobrik and his vlog squad are under fire for a multitude of misconduct allegations. The most shocking one is the one where Durte Dom has been facing an allegation of rape by a woman who appeared in one of Dobrik’s vlogs. Meanwhile, former members of the vlog squad, Seth Francois and BigNik (Nik Keswani) both shared how they were mistreated during their time with the YouTuber group. David Dobrik made a general apology video covering all the allegations (which didn’t hit the mark for most people). Both Francois and BigNik have reacted to the apology.
Seth Francois doesn’t accept the apology
In his short apology video, David Dobrik directly addressed Seth Francois and apologized to him:
“With the Seth situation, I’m sorry to Seth. I’m really sorry, I truly, truly am.”
Before apologizing to Seth, Dobrik also added in saying that “consent is something super important to him”. The YouTuber maintains that he always tried to get approval from the people he was filming:
Whether I’m shooting with a friend or a stranger, I always make sure I have the approval from that person. There’ve been moments where I’ve looked back on videos and I’ve realized these don’t represent me anymore. They’re hurtful to other people.
Seth Francois was quick to respond to the apology video and didn’t accept it.
@DavidDobrik Not calling me to sincerely apologize man to man is equivalent to having* me kiss a man without my consent.
Francois wanted Dobrik to sincerely apologize to him. Seth Francois thinks that David Dobrik not being able to do that is equal to him being forced to kiss a man without his consent.
Seth Francois recently came out with his story of sexual assault where he was misled into thinking he was going to kiss Corinna Kopf. For a video, Dobrik pranked Francois and the person Francois ended up kissing was Jason Nash. Seth Francois didn’t know what had happened to him until later on when he realized it was sexual assault.
Francois suffered emotionally and mentally due to this incident and as per him, he never got a proper apology from Dobrik. Moreover, David Dobrik didn’t also acknowledge the racist remarks that Seth Francois had to listen to while he was with the YouTuber group.
BigNik reacted to David Dobrik’s apology as well
While BigNik was not directly addressed in the video, he knows Dobrik indirectly mentioned him. When David Dobrik was talking about the people and friends in his life that he doesn’t associate with anymore, Nik Keswani believes it was about him.
David Dobrik shared in his video:
“With people in my life that I don’t film with anymore, like Dom, I chose to distance myself. I don’t align with some of the actions, I don’t stand for any misconduct. I’ve been really disappointed by some of my friends. For that reason, I’ve separated from a lot of them.”
BigNik has shared that he was often bullied for his height and everyone in the group took a part in the collective bullying. He shared that the vlog squad almost became like a ‘cult’ that was quite toxic to its members. Keswani suffered mentally due to the hurtful remarks.
Regarding the Dobrik apology, Keswani wrote:
Really hurts when people switch on you but you gotta keep displaying Gods love no matter what
Keswani expressed hurt over Dobrik not acknowledging what he did wrong and instead shifted the blame. However, there was one critic that called out BigNik for being in the wrong themselves on other occasions where he made derogatory comments about women:
Hold yourself accountable as well for the disparaging remarks you’ve said to women (or were those “bits”)
To that, Nik Keswani replied with:
I sincerely apologize to anyone I’ve hurt. That’s not who I was supposed to be. It’s wrong to bash others.
While others were sending their support and love to Keswani:
he treated you guys like actual garbage and really took zero accountability just shifted the blame loly… so sad.. hope u guys get compensated to the fullest extent
Let’s see how Dobrik addresses all these issues.
