Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia each ponied up 30,000 euros to help a social media content creator make a brief visit to the Baltic states he was going to make anyway, it was confirmed July 16.
On July 15 a popular 20-year-old American content creator known as ‘IShowSpeed’, real name Darren Jason Watkins was in Latvia for a few hours in between similarly brief stopovers in Estonia and Lithuania.
In Latvia Mr. Watkins’ activities included performing a backflip at the Freedom Monument (an act which did not go down well with some) and serenading a few hundred of his teenage fans while posing on the balcony of the Latvian Radio building – an act that seemed somehow symbolic of the modern media landscape with an unregulated content creator peacocking at the home of Latvian broadcasting while plans for the entire future of Latvian public media, including Latvian Radio, were being pored over in another part of the city.
The Latvian Investment and Development Agency (LIAA) clubbed together with its counterparts in Estonia and Lithuania to lay on a charter jet and provide security for Mr Watkins and his entourage worthy of an official delegation, despite the fact he does not operate in any official capacity. Each country contributed 30,000 euros in the hope that the visit would provide positive publicity and stimulate interest in the region.
The funds to ease Mr Watkins’ passage were found remarkably quickly. LIAA head Ieva Jāgere said that the content creator started communicating with LIAA only 3 days before his arrival in Latvia, and then the approximate locations and places that would be visited were roughly agreed upon. However, she also admitted that he would have come to Latvia anyway, even without LIAA providing support.
“The content of his live broadcasts is independent. We cannot influence him in any way, and indeed, he is also famous for being unpredictable,” said Jāgere, who did not mention if any similar financial initiatives are planned with other social media influencers.
While Mr. Watkins met with the Prime Minister of Estonia while in Tallinn, he had to make do with mere Economics Ministers in Latvia and Lithuania. During his visit, Prime Minister Evika Siliņa was busy in Kyiv with the arguably more important business of handing over 15 armoured personnel carriers to Ukraine.
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