The Online Citizen A Community of Singaporeans
Popular travel vlogger Nuseir Yassin, or more famously known as Nas Daily on social media, has rejected allegations that his videos on Singapore that have gone viral online were sponsored.
In a Facebook post yesterday (30 Aug), he emphasised that his Singapore-related videos "are 100% not sponsored by anyone", and that "I came here by myself, spent my own money, to make my own videos about your country".
Mr Yassin added that it is "disheartening to see people discredit my work because of unfounded allegations".
He argued that "mainstream media focuses far too often on the negative" and that he wants his videos to instead focus on the positive.
He reiterated that "no one should take credit for these videos, except the people that follow my videos and come to my meetups," as the videos were made only with his viewers in mind, and not for "any government, company or tourism board".
The 26-year-old vlogger, who is famous for his signature one-minute videos which he uploads on a daily basis, has highlighted the lives of regular Singaporeans in a video titled "Crazy Poor Asians", presumably a jab at famous author Kevin Kwan's "Crazy Rich Asians", as well as the freegan movement and a swim school for babies in Singapore.
A video titled "How Singapore Cleans" has gained the highest views among all of his Singapore-related videos so far with 9.3 million views as of today (31 Aug).
One of Mr Yassin' other Facebook videos titled "Day 864: Why I Hate Singapore" has garnered 4,800 comments and 78,000 reactions including 61,000 Likes so far. The video has also received 3.6 million views, and has been shared 30,000 times as of today (31 Aug).
He wrote the following in the description section of the video:
My fifth time in Singapore...
and every time I come here,
I leave amazed at what countries can do in 53 years.
I'm so jealous that I hate it.
Mr Yassin' videos have been heavily criticised by a segment of local netizens for allegedly portraying an unrealistic image of Singapore, and that it would have been nearly impossible for the travel blogger to want to film Singapore through such a lens had he not been sponsored or paid, presumably by the Singapore government, to do so.
Notwithstanding the criticism, he has thanked Singaporeans, particularly his fans, in his Facebook post for making him "feel at home".
Just last week, Mr Yassin held his largest impromptu meetup with approximately 700 of his fans outside the Singapore Indoor Stadium. He will be departing Singapore tomorrow.