Last month, YouTuber Dave Brown, better known as Boyinaband, had some very serious grooming and abuse allegations leveled against him through a post to the /r/Boyinaband subreddit. The post gained thousands of upvotes, sparking discussions and memes across social media about the longtime YouTuber's alleged crimes, before it was mysteriously deleted. Now, some people are questioning the legitimacy of the allegations. Here's what you need to know.
Who Is Dave, AKA Boyinaband?
Boyinaband is an English musician and YouTuber. Before starting as a YouTuber, he was a member of the hardcore band "You and What Army." He's been posting videos to YouTube since 2008, with his first batch of content being music tutorials.
He started diversifying his content as his channel gained a following and became known for his original songs, skits, vlog-style videos and rants. He released his most popular music video in 2015, a song titled "Don't Stay in School" about his belief that school doesn't teach kids valuable life lessons, which has over 47 million views at the time of writing.
Boyinaband is perhaps best known for his collaborations with other bigtime YouTubers, including people like Jaiden Animations, PewDiePie and iDubbbz. Boyinaband has amassed a large following since starting on YouTube, with over 3 million subscribers on his channel.
In 2019, Boyinaband went on a hiatus from his YouTube channel and hasn't posted anything to his channel since December of that year. His last social media post, a mirror selfie, was made in April 2021 and gained over 100,000 likes on Twitter and Instagram. Since then, his online presence has been completely quiet.
What Are The Allegations Against Boyinaband?
On September 7th, 2022, a now-deleted Redditor made a long-form post to /r/Boyinaband alleging that Boyinaband is an abuser and groomer.
In the post, the user shares a collaborative letter supposedly put together by several anonymous ex-girlfriends of Boyinaband, as well as an Imgur link to screenshots of DM conversations between all these girls about Boyinaband (but none from Boyinaband himself). The most serious allegations from the letter claim Boyinaband is abusive and manipulative toward his girlfriends and collaborators, that he was in a relationship with a 17-year-old when he was 23, that he always goes for young girls and is a "hebephile," along with claims that he is hypersexual and addicted to p*rn.
The post even inspired one of Dave's ex-collaborators to comment, and he seemed to agree with some of the rumors about him being abusive to his employees and throwing them aside when they stop being useful to him. The Reddit post gained over 8,000 upvotes in a month before it was deleted by the poster.
How Have People Responded To The Boyinaband Allegations?
The allegations quickly spread across social media as people across the web started discussing and memeing the situation. Many longtime and ex-fans of Boyinaband were notably upset to hear the allegations against one of their favorite YouTubers. Some drew parallels between the Boyinaband situation and other YouTubers who were canceled for reprehensible behavior and allegations, like Shane Dawson and Onision.
Some of the most popular memes to come out of the allegations use the lyrical snippet "I was never taught what laws there are" from Boyinaband's "Don't Go to School," joking that the lyrics will be used by Boyinaband to defend himself in court.
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7149659962237635886
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7148790941191703854
Has Boyinaband Responded?
At the time of writing, Boyinaband has not responded to any of the allegations or made any new appearances online.
Why Did The Redditor Delete Their Post Making Allegations Against Boyinaband?
It is not known why the Redditor who made the accusations against Boyinaband deleted their original Reddit post. It's also not known who made the post, as the letter did not have any names attached to it for the sake of anonymity. This has led some people to believe that the allegations were completely false, supported by the fact that nobody else has added to or confirmed the allegations since they were posted to Reddit.
It's important to remember that despite the post being deleted, that does not necessarily mean the allegations are false. However, there has never been confirmation that they were true, either, since Boyinaband has not responded and there is no concrete evidence of Dave himself actually saying anything abusive or grooming anyone. Basically, Boyinaband is innocent until proven guilty just like anyone else and until he makes a solid statement or someone comes out with more evidence of abuse, the allegations should be taken with a grain of salt.
Anyone else find it weird how the open letter we had about the Boyinaband/ Dave Brown got deleted?
Not only that, but the whole account got deleted as well? pic.twitter.com/vUd55siODD
— Darius (@drs_5000) October 26, 2022
For the full details on the Boyinaband Abuse Allegations, be sure to check out our entry on the meme here for even more information.
