One of YouTube’s most recognizable personalities, IShowSpeed, recently rode the SkyJump attraction from the top of the Strat’s famous Las Vegas tower to the bottom. The simulated 829-foot freefall, which he livestreamed on September 26, went off without incident. But the next day, social media erupted with viral claims that his safety harness had failed mid-jump.
Dozens of click-desperate TikTok users reposted IShowSpeed’s footage because it seemed to show one of the carabiners on his safety harness breaking off mid-jump, though fortunately not in a place that was load-bearing.
“IShowSpeed almost unalive last night as a piece of his bungee cord snapped mid-fall!” claimed the TikTok channel @dz1Sfylef0.
This was just 10 days after a young British tourist and his tandem skydiving instructor barely survived a very real 11,000-foot plummet to the ground near Las Vegas.
Though the TikTokers examined every frame of the video, Zapruder film-style, none seemed to watch the part where IShowSpeed landed with the same carabiner intact. Or, more likely, they did but none wanted to kill a good clickbait video with the truth.
And the truth was that the disappearing carabiner was an illusion created by a pixelation glitch.
Jumping the Gun
Millions of false claims litter social media every day, possibly even outnumbering the true ones. (Frankly, that’s why we started this column.)
But what IShowSpeed (real name: Darren Watkins Jr.) did to make that bad situation even worse was lend legitimacy to a false narrative. He watched one of those videos on camera during his own YouTube livestream.
“Bro, I almost died!” the 20-year-old Cincinnati native proclaimed. “The strap was disconnected, the hook disconnected. What the hell?! I didn’t even know that. I didn’t even see that! Oh my God!”
It is not known how many of Watkins’ 44.5 million followers saw this freakout, but Rolling Stone magazine didn’t name him its “Most Influential Creator of 2025” in August because he has trouble drawing an audience.
Within hours, TikTok, YouTube, X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit exploded with posts claiming Speed had narrowly escaped death. Millions and millions of views were generated.
We don’t think Watkins intended to spread potentially damaging misinformation. We suspect he just naively mistook a TikToker’s sensationalist misinformation as accurate. Either way, though, the Strat’s reputation suffered the same unfair hit.
Strat Chutes Back
The Strat replied with an official media statement. It clarified that the carabiner never broke or detached and added that, even if it had, it wasn’t a primary safety mechanism. (The SkyJump’s system includes multiple layers of protection, such as guide wires and magnetic braking.)
In its 16+ years of operation, the attraction has hosted over 400,000 successful jumps without a single splat.
“We are actively in discussions with his team about the most impactful way to address the issue,” the Strat’s statement concluded, which we suspect is code for the legal threat that caused Watkins to scrub from YouTube both his original jump video and his reaction video to the TikTok speculation.
This isn’t the first time the Strat has had to defend itself against baseless claims of safety negligence posted to social media. In fact, it’s not even the first time this year.
In July, a TikTok falsely claimed to catch a window on the Strat’s observation deck dangerously cracking in real time. An investigation revealed the crack had existed prior to filming and posed no safety risk, and that the videographer had rehearsed the blocking of his video with a companion before shooting it.
Ultimately, this episode is just the latest example of a broader truth we’re growing tired of hammering home: that most social media content providers are not journalists. The overwhelming majority lack investigative training, or ethical standards, and should never be trusted, by anyone, as sources for information of any kind.
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