Published : 29 Sep 2026, 11:47 AM
Updated : 29 Sep 2026, 11:47 AM
Online hate targeting South Asians, including Bangladeshis, Indians and Pakistanis, has surged sharply in the United States, with the monthly volume of hateful posts on X rising 240 percent in a little over two years, according to a new study.
The findings were published by the Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH), a think tank based in Washington, DC, Al Jazeera reports.
Its report, titled "The Rising Tide of Anti-South Asian Hate in the United States", found that monthly anti-South Asian hate on X rose from 12,904 posts in January 2024 to 43,843 in June 2026.
Looking specifically at January 2025 to June 2026, researchers identified about 542,360 posts expressing anti-South Asian hate on X. Monthly volume increased 75 percent over those 18 months, with five of the six highest-volume months recorded between November 2025 and June 2026.
The study examined online hostility towards people of Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and other South Asian backgrounds across X, as well as 4chan, 8chan, also known as 8kun, and Gab.
Researchers used the United Nations definition of hate speech, which covers communication that attacks people or uses pejorative or discriminatory language against them on the basis of characteristics such as religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, colour, descent or gender.
They combined keyword-based data collection, automated classification and qualitative review, and said their searches were designed to minimise false positives, including criticism of South Asians that did not meet that threshold.
Nearly half of the anti-South Asian posts identified on X portrayed South Asians as "invaders", job thieves or a demographic threat, according to the report.
That narrative accounted for 245,099 posts between January 2025 and June 2026, or about 45 percent of all anti-South Asian posts identified during the period.
Researchers said much of the rhetoric centred on immigration and employment, particularly the H-1B visa programme, which allows US employers to hire foreign workers for specialist jobs.
Claims that South Asians were taking American jobs, suppressing wages or exploiting the immigration system frequently overlapped with rhetoric portraying migration as a threat to the country's demographic makeup, the report said.
Racial slurs were also widespread.
Researchers identified 168,393 X posts containing slurs targeting South Asian culture or identity over the 18-month period, representing about 31 percent of all the anti-South Asian posts they found.
The derogatory term "pajeet" and its variants appeared around 162,916 times, equivalent to 30 percent of all anti-South Asian posts identified on X.
Stereotypes portraying South Asians as dirty or unhygienic were the fastest-growing category measured by the researchers.
Such posts rose 171 percent, from 2,052 in January 2025 to 5,557 in June 2026. Researchers identified 59,441 such posts over the full study period, accounting for 11 percent of the total.
The study also found that online abuse frequently blurred distinctions between South Asian nationalities and religions, with Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis treated interchangeably and Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians targeted as part of a single group.
Researchers said South Asian public figures across the political spectrum had also faced racist or xenophobic attacks, citing former US vice president Kamala Harris, Second Lady Usha Vance, FBI Director Kash Patel, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and politician Vivek Ramaswamy, among others.
They identified immigration politics, racial hostility, economic resentment, growing South Asian political visibility and amplification on digital platforms among the factors they believe contributed to the rise.
They pointed particularly to disputes over the H-1B visa programme and political rhetoric surrounding immigration and outsourcing.
The study highlighted a July 2025 speech by US President Donald Trump at an artificial intelligence summit in Washington, where he criticised US technology companies for outsourcing jobs to India. Researchers recorded a sharp increase in anti-South Asian rhetoric around that period.
The report also pointed to a since-deleted September 2026 Department of Homeland Security social media post featuring a Sikh man identified as "Mr Singh" and telling him to "get off our roads".
Days later, the US Department of Education posted "Make Football Great Again" after Texas Republican Bo French complained about the presence of South Asians at a University of Texas football game.
The researchers argued that such rhetoric reinforced portrayals of South Asians as outsiders who could never truly belong in the country.
The study also documented more direct forms of online harassment.
Researchers found accounts on X publishing personal and professional information about South Asians whom they accused of taking American jobs or committing visa fraud.
Some influencers also confronted South Asians at their homes or workplaces and posted videos of the encounters online, the report said.
In some cases, people appeared to have been assumed to be H-1B workers simply because of their South Asian identity.
Researchers also pointed to the growing use of generative artificial intelligence to produce racist images and videos depicting South Asians through dehumanising stereotypes.
Beyond X, the study identified 397,522 hateful mentions across 4chan, 8chan and Gab during 2025.
More than 90 percent of those mentions came from 4chan. The researchers cautioned that restricted access to data from Gab and 8chan meant the figures could establish the presence and character of hate on those platforms but could not reliably be used to compare its prevalence across all three.
The report warned against viewing online hostility separately from discrimination or violence offline, arguing that stereotypes and narratives can move between social media, political discourse and everyday life.
