American trolls sabotaged the return of Indian IT professionals (6 photos)
Let me tell you an interesting story about how Trump seriously ruined the lives of thousands of Indian IT specialists. 
It all started when Donny's executive order went into effect last night. With a single stroke of the pen, he raised the H-1B work visa fee from $1,000 to $100,000. This isn't a one-time fee, but an annual fee for new applications.
Top executives at Google, OpenAI, NVIDIA, Amazon, and Meta are panicking: hiring foreign specialists is now 100 times more expensive, and visas must be renewed every three years. 
"This will destroy innovation in Silicon Valley," declared an industry lobby, predicting a talent shortage and increased offshoring to India.
To put this into perspective: in 2024, 72.6% of all H-1B visas (out of 399,395 approved) went to Indians, and another 12.5% to Chinese. They are the backbone of American IT. 
And here's where the fun begins. Companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta have urgently sent out letters to employees abroad: "Return immediately to avoid re-entry issues."
Indian IT professionals, many of whom were vacationing in their home country during Durga Puja, rushed to book tickets. Demand soared, and prices for Delhi-New York flights jumped from $1,000 to $6,000 for a one-way flight. 
But then trolls from 4chan, an anonymous forum known for radical actions, stepped in. They launched "Operation Clog the Toilet"—a coordinated attack on the booking system.
Participants massively reserved seats on India-US flights using a VPN for Indian IPs, but did not complete the purchase (they were held for 15 minutes). Ticket prices jumped another 50%, and real passengers were unable to book seats for hours. 
India responded: the Ministry of External Affairs expressed "humanitarian concerns" for families, and NASSCOM warned of risks to businesses. 
Trump's defenders see the decision as a job-saving measure for Americans, but experts at Pew Research see a crisis: the H-1B supplements the market, and a fee above the median wage ($97,000 for newcomers) will destroy the program. Besides, there aren't many American professionals willing to work hard.
India is preparing for localization, switching to AI and internal hiring. For thousands of families, this isn't politics, but rather the shattered dreams of an "American life," while the trolls celebrate the success of their campaign.
Naturally, we, seasoned armchair experts in international economics, are completely indifferent to all this petty squabble, but who's to stop us from discussing all this activity in the comments?
