“Imagine the smell,” tweeted Nik Pash, responding to a photo that showed several developers at a xAI hackathon. A large number of them appeared to be of South Asian ethnicity. Mr. Pash’s tweet drew outrage as the phrase was generally used to mock people perceived as being unhygienic. Plus, it came from someone who headed artificial intelligence at a coding startup.
Mr. Pash was let go after many users criticised his post. The outrage grew as multiple other X users responded with shared negative comments about H1-B visas, Indians working in IT, deportations, bad smells, body odour, open defecation, and American population replacement. While many supported Mr. Pash’s removal from the company, others were outraged by what they felt was a harmless joke.
This incident highlighted an unaddressed issue plaguing X: racism against South Asians.
What does racist abuse against South Asians look like on X?
As digital rights advocates track rising levels of antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism, and transphobia on X after Elon Musk’s 2022 takeover of Twitter, many have noted a distinct spike in hateful rhetoric aimed at South Asians this year, targeting their race, skin colour, religious beliefs, careers in America, and/or migration history.
Graphic comments referred to several prominent X users as “street shi***rs,” insulted their religious identity, mischaracterised them as dirty, or called on them to be deported and stripped of their visa privileges. The hate was also layered, with women facing misogynistic abuse in addition to the racism while Muslim users were hit with Islamophobia and Hindu users faced anti-Hindu hate.
Free AI tools with poor guardrails, including Grok’s own photo-to-video generator on X, make it easy for malicious users to generate racist deepfake photos and videos of individuals. Several verified X users engage in this type of harassment
Which South Asian individuals were abused online?
U.S. conservative politician Vivek Ramaswamy, New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, Senior White House Policy Advisor on AI Sriram Krishnan, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Former U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan might hold radically different political views, but all five were subjected to disturbing levels of racist hate on Elon Musk’s X.
When Mr. Ramaswamy on November 1 posted a photo with his children to greet X followers for Halloween, commenters told him to go to India, and used the racial slur “pajeet” against the family. Furthermore, one user even turned the photo into a deepfake video to show Mr. Ramasawmy dumping brown liquid over his children.
Mr. Ramaswamy and Mr. Patel were also hit with graphic images and racist comments when they posted Diwali wishes on their X accounts last month, with both individuals being told to return to India. Their Hindu gods were referred to as “demons” and “pagan,” and shown broken to pieces before a crucifix in an AI image. Meanwhile, a deepfake video of Mr. Patel appeared to show him holding excrement.
Despite receiving U.S. President Donald Trump’s endorsement, Mr. Krishnan was slammed with racist abuse in late 2024 and doxxed by right-wing influencer Laura Loomer last year. Ms. Loomer later apologised and claimed it was an accident. X users also trolled Mr. Krishnan over his appearance and his Indian background.
How have hateful and racist comments against South Asians increased in recent years?
The Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH), a non-profit, non-partisan think tank in the U.S., reported a “visible uptick of anti-Indian hate” on X after Mr. Krishnan’s appointment to his U.S. White House role, and also after a post on X by Mr. Ramaswamy in December 2024, when H1-B visa debates were raging.
“Since then, anti-Indian racism on social media, including X, has shown no signs of abating,” observed the organisation.
After studying a dataset of 680 posts on X targeting Indians and Indian-origin communities that received over 281 million views between July 1 and September 7, CSOH reported that almost 70% of the posts focused on deportation, invasion, and job theft.
“Immigration and calls for deportation are thus the central pillars and main drivers of anti-Indian racism on X,” explained CSOH in the report, adding that “racist slurs and mockery, though less voluminous, also play a crucial role in normalizing and reinforcing anti-Indian hate on X. The repeated use of racialized terms like “pajeet” or tropes of Indians as dirty or smelly provides the cultural scaffolding for more explicit exclusionary and hateful rhetoric.”
Mr. Mamdani and Ms. Khan faced both racism and Islamophobia on X, with the New York City mayor-elect frequently being linked to terrorism because he openly embraced his Muslim identity. Using his popularity with younger, left-wing voters in order to call for deportations was a popular strategy for racists on X.
One example was U.S. politician Andy Ongles, who on October 29 posted, “Think of how many future Zohran Mamdani’s we can stop by mass deportations. Let’s deport them now before they are naturalized. Subversive immigrants must NEVER get citizenship.”
Mr. Mamdani’s legal status was also questioned by U.S. President Donald Trump, triggering further abuse against the politician on X.
Though former FTC Chair Ms. Khan is not vocal about her religious beliefs, the London-born American antitrust scholar was nevertheless attacked online over her surname, her appearance, and her parents’ Pakistani heritage. Ms. Khan recently became a target for racists and misogynists after she was named the co-chair of Mr. Mamdani’s transition team.
X user Paul Sperry, verified with a blue check mark and with over half a million followers, posted a photo of what he claimed was Ms. Khan’s “family home” on X, possibly doxxing her and her family members. He further claimed that she “hates capitalism and is pushing socialism on all New Yorkers.” In another post, he referred to the former regulator as a “TROJAN HORSE?”, called her “Ethnic-Pakistani Muslim” and said she would be able to “place fellow Muslims throughout the government”.
The normalisation of South Asian hate as well as mockery on X has also impacted everyday tech workers and social media users.
What world events triggered hatred against South Asians on social media?
Apart from the souring relationship between the U.S. and India after Mr. Trump’s return to the White House, the president’s strong and repeated emphasis on the removal of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives has made more people view minority groups in a poor light. Referring to them as “illegal and immoral discrimination programs,” his rhetoric unfairly showed South Asians as outsiders taking over American jobs.
Referring to the H-1B visa programme for workers, Mr. Trump said in a September 19 proclamation that the “large-scale replacement of American workers through systemic abuse of the program has undermined both our economic and national security”.
A U.S. government report published this year stated that out of the H-1B petitions approved in FY 2024, 71% were for beneficiaries whose country of birth was India.
