‘Clog the system’: Trolls flood India-US flight bookings after Trump’s H-1B fee hike announcement

WASHINGTON, Sept 29 — While vacationing in India, engineer Amrutha Tamanam scrambled to return to the United States after Donald Trump abruptly announced a US$100,000 fee on the visa she holds.

As she rushed to secure a flight back to the country she has called home for a decade, far-right trolls launched a coordinated online campaign to disrupt bookings from India, dubbing their effort “clog the toilet.”

The White House later clarified that the H-1B fee was a one-time charge not applicable to current holders. However, leading US firms had already advised employees abroad to return quickly to avoid potential complications.

From her hometown of Vijayawada, Tamanam tried booking a flight while trolls on the message board 4chan targeted India-US routes. Users were encouraged to begin the checkout process on airline sites but abandon purchases, overwhelming systems and blocking genuine travellers.

The tactic directly affected Tamanam, who faced repeated website crashes and faster-than-usual checkout timeouts. After several failed attempts, she finally secured a one-way Qatar Airways ticket to Dallas for around US$2,000—more than twice her original round-trip fare.

“It was difficult to book a ticket, and I paid an enormous amount for panic travel,” she told AFP.

On 4chan and other fringe platforms like Telegram, threads filled with racist remarks urged participants to hold seats on popular India-US routes without completing transactions. The aim, they claimed, was to keep Indian visa holders from returning in time, driving up prices and reducing seat availability.

“What stands out is how quickly the campaign spread, how international the participation was, and how online hostility can cross borders with ease,” an observer noted. — AFP