Post-Trump political climate fuels 'alarming surge' in online hate
Anti-Asian hate has spiked since the 2024 presidential election, according to data released by a nonprofit organisation that tracks online slurs and threats of violence against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI).
Stop AAPI, the largest organisation in the US to track such data, says the climate of anti-immigrant and racist rhetoric from US President Donald Trump and his allies has resulted in 'an alarming surge' of online hate, which was directed mainly towards South Asian communities.
The research said that anti-South Asian hate spiked significantly in December 2024, when billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy called for an increase in the number of H-1B visas issued against the backdrop of Trump's election campaign, which singled out migrants and minority groups.
Indian nationals are the largest recipients of the H1-B visa programme.
Indian immigrants were accused of 'stealing jobs', particularly in white-collar occupations, and, therefore, threatening 'white livelihood'.
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While the H-1B visa debate centred around Indian tech workers, there was also hate towards Indian Uber drivers, fast food workers, and call centre workers. After the murder of the United HealthCare CEO, there were also calls to attack Indian and Indian American CEOs.
While anti-East Asian hate also flared following the debate on the H-1B programme, data shows it was additionally fuelled by the rhetoric surrounding the video platform TikTok and AI company DeepSeek, which are owned by Chinese companies, and videos allegedly depicting new Chinese military aircraft.
Historically, there is a correlation between negative news coverage of immigrants and/or their countries of origin and animosity towards such groups.
'We are extremely alarmed by the latest spikes of hate that Asian communities are facing today, both in online spaces and in-person," Manjusha Kulkarni, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate and executive director of AAPI Equity Alliance, said in the report.
'Trump and his loyalists have stoked the flames of anti-Asian scapegoating and bigotry for years. And today, they continue to embolden racists to commit acts of hate.'
The numbers
The AAPI has monitored online slurs and threats of violence against Asian communities in online extremist spaces, and data shows that January 2025 had the highest number of anti-Asian slurs since monitoring began in August 2022, with a total of 87,945 slurs.
Anti-Asian slurs increased by 66 percent after Trump's 2024 presidential victory, with 75 percent of these slurs being directed towards South Asian communities - a total of 63,258.
Anti-East Asian slurs also saw a dramatic rise in January 2025, jumping by 54 percent compared to December 2024 and 51 percent compared to November 2024 post-election - with a total of 23,287.
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Online threats of violence towards Asian communities reached their highest levels in December 2024, which could be attributed to the H-1B debate amongst Trump's supporters, where some factions are pushing for even more extreme anti-immigrant policies. Of the December threats, 76 percent were directed at South Asians - equivalent to 884 threats of violence online.
Existing research suggests that there is a correlation between hate crimes in person and hate acts online. As it typically takes months or years for in-person hate acts data to be released, online spaces can serve as an early warning system for what's happening in real-time.
Cynthia Choi, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate and co-executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action, said in the report that Asians and Pacific Islanders are bearing the brunt of the heightened political climate.
'As the only racial group that is majority foreign-born - and accounting for one out of every seven undocumented immigrants - AAPI communities are experiencing devastating harms as a result of Trump's xenophobic agenda.'
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