Video shows Vlog Squad's Jeff Wittek took part in the dangerous 'milk crate challenge' that has been criticized by doctors and banned from TikTok

• Jeff Wittek was filmed participating in the milk crate challenge, which has been banned from TikTok.
• It requires walking over a staircase made of plastic milk crates, with people often falling.
• Wittek was criticized by YouTuber Ethan Klein for taking part after suffering an injury last year.

A video of Vlog Squad member Jeff Wittek participating in the TikTok "milk crate challenge" has surfaced after the trend was labeled "dangerous" by doctors.

It follows speculation earlier this year about the safety of the Vlog Squad, a collective of influencers who appear in vlogs posted to David Dobrik's YouTube channel, which has over 18 million subscribers. Dobrik apologized and took a break from YouTube after Insider reported in March that a woman featured on his channel said she was raped by Vlog Squad member Dominykas Zeglaitis, aka Durte Dom.

Wittek then revealed in April that he severely injured his eye while swinging from an excavator controlled by Dobrik at a lake in Utah in June 2020. At the time of the accident, Wittek wrote in an Instagram caption that he "got in an accident and broke my face and skull in a few places."

The "milk crate challenge," which appears to have originated on Facebook and spread to TikTok, involves walking over an unsteady staircase made of plastic milk crates. People often fall, and doctors have warned this can cause "life-threatening" injuries, including broken bones and spinal cord damage. The trend amassed 71 million views while it was sweeping over TikTok, but has since been heavily criticized, and TikTok has banned hashtags and videos relating to it from the platform.

The video of Wittek was posted on Saturday to a small YouTube channel called Vlogsquad Stories, which was created in April 2021 and posts clips from Vlog Squad members' social media accounts. Most of its videos have fewer than 1,000 views. Insider reached out to the creator of the account for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

In the video, which appears to be part of an Instagram story, the tallest segment of the milk crate tower Wittek attempted to climb is seven crates high. A voice resembling Dobrik's can be heard behind the camera saying Wittek just "went for it," before Wittek is seen climbing down from the crates.

YouTuber and podcast host Ethan Klein, who has been publicly critical of Dobrik and the Vlog Squad during the controversies, spoke about the video on his H3 Twitch channel.

"He's like an adrenaline junkie or something," he said. "But why is David allowing him to do this? The man has a traumatic brain injury, why is he doing crate challenge nonsense?"

Neither Wittek nor Dobrik immediately responded to Insider's request for comment.

For more stories like this, check out coverage from Insider's Digital Culture team here.