4chan users launched “Operation Clog the Toilet,” deliberately blocking India-US flight bookings amid panic over a $100,000 H-1B visa fee, causing ticket shortages and skyrocketing fares. The campaign sparked outrage as many condemned it as racism disguised as online trolling, even as the White House clarified the fee only applies to new visa applicants.

US President Donald Trump recently announced a massive hike in the H-1B visa fee. After the revised regulation, the H-1B visa fee for fresh application stands at $1,00,000. The massive H-1B visa fee hike caused a situation of panic and chaos in the tech sector. Many tech giants such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta and others asked their employees on H-1B visa to return to the US with immediate effect. This situation also gave rise to an online harassment campaign called ‘Operation Clod the Toilet’. This campaign deliberately disrupted the flight bookings for Indian H-1B visa holders going back to the US after Trump’s order.

How the campaign worked

As per multiple online reports, the far-right groups on online forums such as 4chan and Telegram coordinated efforts to block seats on India–US flights. The trolls started the checkout process for multiple tickers on busy routes such as Delhi to New York or Dallas without completing the payment process. This temporarily held the seats, making them unavailable to genuine travelers. Once the hold expired, the process was repeated, effectively clogging airline booking systems and driving up ticket prices.Some of the trollers also bagged about holding “100 seats” at a time, with posts laced with racist slurs and calls to “keep Indians in India.”

Impact on travellers

This Clog The Toilet campaign coincided with the widespread panic among the Indian tech workers. Many of the Indian tech professionals came on a vacation to India when the Trump administration announced the fee hike. Fearing that the H-1B visa holders will be charged upon re-entering the US, workers scrambled to book flights back to the U.S.One software engineer told AFP she paid over $2,000 for a one-way ticket to Dallas, more than double her original fare, after repeated booking failures.

White house clarification

After the initial announcement of fee hike, the White House later clarified that the $100,000 fee applies only to new H-1B petitions, not to existing visa holders re-entering the U.S. “Those who already hold H-1B visas and are currently outside of the country right now will NOT be charged $100,000 to re-enter,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.Despite this, the initial confusion and the trolling campaign caused significant disruption and financial strain for many Indian professionals.The episode highlights both the vulnerability of immigrant workers to sudden policy shifts and the weaponization of online platforms to target specific communities. The H-1B program, which allows U.S. companies to hire foreign professionals in specialized fields, issues 85,000 visas annually, with about 75% going to Indians.