BeerBiceps fiasco: How did influencers get to flex artificial muscles anyway?

livemint.com:

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Emerging media platforms and traditional moral values never make for good bedfellows. The controversy that erupted over online influencer and podcaster Ranveer Allahbadia, his curiously named company BeerBiceps and some of his fellow travellers has consumed India’s content devouring population, evoking strong emotions and extreme views online.

Allahbadia’s soaring popularity came crashing down earlier this month when, as a judge on an online talent show, he indulged in a now-familiar trope: insulting and demeaning participants, all in the hope of getting a laugh from his audience. This is common on reality shows: profanities and slurs hurled in the name of humour. These barbs are mostly harmless, occasionally stinging and almost always risqué in their attempt to extract a chuckle.

Some observers felt that Allahbadia crossed a limit that day, misusing India’s constitutionally-granted freedom of speech, and filed police complaints; another complainant’s objection, that his show is watched by children of all ages and his comments could be morally corrupting for them, seemed curiously comfortable with its previous episodes where expletives invoking the human anatomy were bandied about freely. The courts seem convinced of Allahbadia’s guilt. But should he alone be held responsible? What about society’s role? Sure, Allahbadia did make objectionable comments, but it might be worthwhile to pause and think about how various stakeholders in society might have encouraged him down that path.