An American mega-influencer flew to Lithuania. Then the chaos began.
The streamer IShowSpeed drank pink soup in the Baltics and marveled at cars in China. Are his tours propaganda, or just good advertising?
Darren Watkins Jr., a streamer known as IShowSpeed, in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius drinking beetroot soup with the nation’s economy minister. (IShowSpeed/YouTube)
When the YouTube mega-streamer IShowSpeed walked shirtless last week off a private jet into the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, the nation’s economy minister was waiting for him on the tarmac with shots of šaltibarščiai, a cold pink beetroot soup.
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A mob of chanting fans was waiting, too, so the streamer — a 20-year-old from Cincinnati named Darren Watkins Jr., who has 120 million followers across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube — piled with his security detail into a minibus to drive to the city’s historic Palace of the Grand Dukes, where the mayor served him cheese and honey and a troupe of young Lithuanian women taught him a traditional folk dance.
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The comments on the article about social media influencers like IShowSpeed promoting tourism and national image are mixed. Some commenters view influencers as savvy entrepreneurs who have tapped into a lucrative market, while others see them as shallow and lacking substance…. Show moreThis summary is AI-generated. AI can make mistakes and this summary is not a replacement for reading the comments.Comments 349
By Drew HarwellDrew Harwell is a technology reporter for The Washington Post. His work was honored by the Gerald Loeb Awards in 2024 and the George Polk Awards in 2021.