Following allegations of sexual assault on a former Vlog Squad member, David Dobrik shared with Dispo, an app for a disposable camera co-founded in 2019 by YouTuber.
In a statement, Dispo stated that “David has chosen to resign from the board of directors in order to keep the company from being distracted from its growth. The Dispo team, products, and, most importantly, our community all support the creation of a more diverse, inclusive, and empowering world. “
Dobrik’s decision to leave Dispo was prompted by an insider report in which one of the women featured in a 2018 vlog told her, while she was drunk enough to consent, that a former member of Dobrik’s Vlog Squad worked for her sexual activity. She was 20 years old at the time and claimed that Dobrik’s friends gave her and her friend’s alcohol because they were too young to purchase it for themselves. David Dobrik included images from the incident night in the video “SHE SHOULD NOT HAVE PLAYED WITH FIRE!!,” which was later removed at the request of a woman. Dobrik said at the end of the video, “We’re all going to the slammer.
On the same day that David Dobrik left Dispo, risk capital firm Spark Capital announced that it had formed a relationship with the company following its recent $20 million round. “In light of the recent updates concerning the Vlog Squad and David Dobrik, the co-founder of Dispo,” the firm tweeted, “we have decided to break all ties with the company.” “We have left our position on the board and are in the process of taking steps to ensure that we do not benefit from our recent investment in Dispo,” the firm added.
Many sponsors have also severed ties with David Dobrik or reviewed their partnership with him in light of the allegations. According to the New York Times, HelloFresh and Dollar Shave Club are no longer working with YouTuber or their team. In the end, Dobrik’s main YouTube channel lost over 100,000 subscribers, and Dispo’s App Store page was deluged with negative ratings.
While David Dobrik refused to comment on the Insider report, he later released a video titled “Let’s Talk,” in which he discussed the controversy in general. “I do not agree with a few of the videos that I have posted,” he says in the video, adding that there are “moments when I have looked back at videos and I realise that they no longer represent me and that they hurt others,” Buzzfeed reported on separate allegations made last month about a YouTuber in the same apology video by a former member of the Vlog Squad.
“I was really duped by some of my friends, and I cut myself off from a lot of them because of it,” Dobrik explained. According to an insider, the Vlog Squad member accused of sexual assault stopped appearing in videos on Dobrik’s channel by the end of 2019. “Consent is extremely important to me,” Dobrik stated. “I’m truly sorry if I let you down, and such things will not happen again.
Dispo is an iOS app that simulates the use of a device’s camera. Photos taken are only available at 9 a.m. the next day and can be ordered as prints directly from the app.
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