US President
Donald Trump's administration last week announced last week a massive increase in H-1B visa fees, imposing a USD 100,000 annual charge that will fundamentally alter how American companies hire skilled foreign workers, particularly impacting Indian IT professionals who comprise the largest group of beneficiaries.
The new USD 100,000 annual fee represents a significant increase from current H-1B processing costs, which typically amount to a few thousand dollars. Companies will pay this fee in addition to existing vetting charges, with the administration still determining whether to collect the full amount upfront or on an annual basis.
The White House would later clarify that the new H-1B fee was a one-time payment not applicable to current holders. But leading US companies had already advised their employees abroad to swiftly return to avoid the fee or risk being stranded overseas. However, between the US’s announcement about the new H-1B visa rules and the clarification that followed, panic rippled across immigrant communities.
The announcement led to immediate panic among H-1B holders abroad. Amrutha Tamanam, a software engineer from Austin, Texas, was vacationing in Vijayawada when the decision was made public. She rushed to return to the US, only to face unexpected online harassment, news agency AFP reported.
As she searched for tickets out of Vijayawada, trolls on the far-right message board 4chan launched a coordinated campaign to block Indians from booking flights, calling it "clog the toilet." 4chan users began to reserve seats on flights from India to the US, so that these immigrants could not return.
One thread instructed users to look up India-US flights, "initiate the checkout process" but "don’t checkout," to overload systems and prevent visa holders from returning before the new fee came into force.
The campaign appeared to affect Tamanam’s travel. Airline booking sites repeatedly crashed, and checkout windows expired more quickly than usual. After several failed attempts, she finally secured a one-way ticket to Dallas on Qatar Airways, paying about $2,000 — more than double her original round-trip fare.
“It was hard for me to book a ticket and I paid a huge fare for the panic travel,” she told AFP.
What is 'Clog the Toilet'?
The 4chan thread, also shared among Trump supporters on Telegram and other fringe forums, as quoted by AFP, read: "Indians are just waking up after the H1B news. Want to keep them in India? Clog the flight reservation system!"
Users — many posting with racist language — urged each other to hold seats on popular India-US routes without completing bookings, inflating prices and limiting availability.
One user claimed, "I got 100 seats locked." Another wrote, "Currently clogging the last available seat on this Delhi to Newark flight."
Some users said they were targeting Air India’s booking system, though the airline told AFP its site was working normally.
Online hate networks
The operation was designed to "cause panic among H-1B visa holders," Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, was quoted as saying by the AFP.
"The real scary thing about 4chan is its ability to radicalize people into extremist beliefs," she said, pointing out that several US mass shooters had posted manifestos there.
The H-1B programme allows American companies to hire foreign workers with specialised skills for an initial three years, extendable to six. The US issues 85,000 H-1B visas annually through a lottery, with Indians accounting for about three-quarters of recipients.
Brian Levin, founder of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, told AFP the trolling reflected the ease with which disruptive campaigns can be launched online.
"In an age of information warfare, bad actors can do this with the stroke of a keyboard," he said.