The Trump administration's big announcement on hiking the H-1B visa fee to $100,000 recently triggered panic among Indians, the biggest beneficiaries of the scheme. More than the announcement itself, what sparked panic among Indians was a directive from tech giants like Microsoft, JP Morgan and Meta asking employees to return before September 21.
As Indians scrambled to book tickets and catch a flight to the US at the earliest, a far-right troll group was reportedly working to block their attempts, as part of a 'clog the toilet' campaign.
Amrutha Tamanam, a techie employed in Austin, was vacationing in India when she got to know about the return deadline, and scrambled to book tickets from Vijayawada. During the same time, 4chan, a far-right message board was working on loading reservation systems to disrupt check out and booking of flights.
According to news agency AFP, a message on one of the threads of this group urged users to find India-US flights but stop just before checkout. The goal was to overload the system and specifically prevent H-1B visa holders from reaching the US.
It is possible that these efforts may have disrupted Amrutha's booking. However, after multiple failed attempts she did manage to rebook a one-way ticket to Dallas on Qatar Airways. The ticket cost her $2,000, almost double the usual fare. "It was hard for me to book a ticket and I paid a huge fare for the panic travel," she told AFP.
Right-wing trolls and racial targeting of Indians
{{/usCountry}}It is possible that these efforts may have disrupted Amrutha's booking. However, after multiple failed attempts she did manage to rebook a one-way ticket to Dallas on Qatar Airways. The ticket cost her $2,000, almost double the usual fare. "It was hard for me to book a ticket and I paid a huge fare for the panic travel," she told AFP.
Right-wing trolls and racial targeting of Indians
{{/usCountry}}"Indians are just waking up after the H1B news. Want to keep them in India? Clog the flight reservation system!" This was one of the messages on far-right message board 4chan.
Responses to this message were filled with racial connotations and targeting of Indians, joining in the effort to block popular India-US routes in a way that hampers the booking process for H-1B visa holders from India.
The idea was to lock seats without completing the purchase, making it harder for Indians to find available flights.
"I got 100 seats locked," one of the messages on the thread read. "Currently clogging the last available seat on this Delhi to Newark flight," wrote another. There were also claims from users on holding up seats on Air India seats, but the airline told AFP that the site saw no disruptions.
Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism said that the campaign was solely to cause panic among H-1B visa holders. "The real scary thing about 4chan is its ability to radicalize people into extremist beliefs," Beirich said.
The official also shared that US mass shooters posted their manifestos on 4chan, the far-right group that allegedly targeted Indians.
Behind the panic to rush back to US
After the Trump administration announced a steep visa fee hike of $100,000 last week, several leading tech firms like Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and JP Morgan issued directives to their employees to back to the US before 12:01 am EDT on September 21. This spurred Indian H-1B visa holders outside the US to swiftly book tickets to return.
However, the tech giants' directive later proved to be a preemptive measure, as a White House official confirmed that the fee hike applied only to new visa petitions and not to renewals, adding that there was no need to rush back.
(With AFP inputs)