Pakistani internet influencer Junaid Akram has said that Indian YouTuber Ranveer Allahbadia’s joke on one of the episodes of ‘India’s Got Latent’ was “bad”, but opposed the registration of several first information reports (FIRs) against the latter and the show’s owner Samay Raina.

“Through art, societies progress, but I do not support that controversial joke. The joke was bad, but registering four FIRs against that and taking such actions, I think this is way too much,” he said in his vlog on Saturday.

Several people in India slammed Allahbadia and internet influencer Apoorva Makhija, also known as The Rebel Kid, for their controversial jokes on the popular YouTube channel.

The BeerBiceps host apologised for his comments. In reaction to people’s comments, Raina deleted all videos of his show from the YouTube channel and expressed his willingness to cooperate with the investigation agencies.

Before that YouTube took down that video from its platform. A senior adviser to the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Kanchan Gupta, said on X that the episode was blocked due to government orders, sharing a screenshot indicating its unavailability on YouTube.

Akram was of the view that India has “real issues” to look into as there was high unemployment among youth, smog issues, and civil issues in Manipur.

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“Comedian shows society’s face and it is used as a tool to deliver messages. Curbing any voices under the garb of decency or morality…” he said and mentioned other platforms promoting vulgar content.

He called for ending the “cancel culture”, saying that banning a person for a single mistake was not appropriate as society gives a chance to improve through rehabilitation centres or jail.

Akram revealed that he also invested and shot a show like Raina’s but did not publish it due to several reasons, including censorship. “You are not allowed to do comedy openly.”