Anonymous Accounts

observations and reflections

Recently, in a post, I caught a glimpse of a Twitter/X that I so fondly remember. It was a simple tweet with a comment section entire of real profiles and civil discussion. It was a fleeting feeling, but the post made me think about why I had this reminiscence of a time passed and feelings that were more deeply rooted. After that experience, I took some time to reflect and realize the sentiment I was feeling. The Twitter/X that I used to know, from my middle through high school years, was utterly different from Twitter/X as it exists now. The Twitter/X I was accustomed to was full of interesting debates with real people standing behind their claims. However, the Twitter/X that I'm most accustomed to is dominated by anonymous accounts with no sense of being held accountable for their words.

Reflecting on the catalyst for writing this piece, I recall that the H1B visa debate started on Twitter/X nearly two months ago. On December 23rd, President Trump announced on Truth Social that "Sriram Krishnan will serve as Senior Policy Advisor for Artificial Intelligence at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Working closely with David Sacks, Sriram will focus on ensuring continued American leadership in A.I., and help shape and coordinate A.l. policy across Government, including working with the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology."

Immediately after this announcement, Twitter/X was thrown into a firestorm, recalling an old tweet from Sriram, quoting a tweet by Elon Musk which stated, "Anything to remove country caps for green cards / unlock skilled immigration would be huge." Most of the posts I saw during this time shifted between two different cohorts of people: one set of posts made by real people, with their employer, school, or anything to back up their identity in their profile, and the second set of posts evidenced by anonymous accounts. The ability to be protected behind the cloak of anonymity led users to post some of the most vile vitriol you will ever see on a social media platform, including anti-Indian sentiment, misinformation, as well as ad hominem attacks against Sriram. I actively remember during those few days that I had to disengage from the platform due to how toxic the platform felt and how the words people were using on the site were rife with hatred.

As I finished this piece, I went back to Twitter/X to do some more research regarding some of the older posts from this time. I came across a great tweet from Paul Graham, founder of YCombinator, which echoed my observations. Graham writes, "I don't think I've ever seen a Twitter dispute that was so one-sided. All the people who understand tech, on both right and left, are on one side, and the other side is just anonymous accounts."

One person who fell into the 'real people' cohort was Armand Domalewski, a San Francisco data scientist who created YIMBYs For Harris. Armand posted plenty of tweets during this debate striving to correct misinformation and standing up to any forms of anti-Indian sentiment on the platform. But, if you were to analyze just about any tweet out of the multitude of his posts, you will see that most of the comments in his comment section are posts from anonymous accounts. Look at any post regarding the H1B debate, including from the illustrious David Sacks and even Elon Musk himself. You will find that the majority of the replies are from anonymous accounts.

I bring this up not because I'm against posts from anonymous accounts but because there is no proof of who is behind these accounts. When the H1B visa debate exploded on X, people like Elon Musk could claim the idea that the most important discussions happen on a platform like X. The spillover effect of this debate was that mainstream media outlets picked it up and even went so far as to interview President Trump about it. However, they were not quick to observe who was mainly driving the discussion within those few days and what the contrast was between authentic profiles and anonymous accounts.

Author Vivek Wadhwa does a yeoman's job conveying my ideas and rationale behind this post. Wadhwa's words in Fortune magazine: "For Indian-Americans like me, particularly those active on social media, the attacks on H-1 B's have grown toxic and deeply personal. My X stream is flooded with venomous rhetoric, blatant misinformation, and outright racist attacks. The animosity doesn't stop at immigration or employment—it extends to my religion, Hinduism, which is often misrepresented, mocked, or vilified. What began as a debate over policy has devolved into a campaign of hostility against Indian professionals and their cultural and spiritual identity. These narratives don't remain confined to social media; they ripple globally. Media outlets in India and beyond amplify these stories, portraying the US as a country gripped by racism, xenophobia, and religious intolerance. For many abroad, the American dream appears tarnished, overshadowing the immense contributions Indian-Americans continue to make to this nation."

X/Twitter used to be a great platform for sharing ideas, but it has, in the words of Wadhwa, "devolved" into a platform rife with anonymous accounts posting whatever they please, flooding old and current proper discussions with rants of racism, hatred, disagreement, misinformation, and more.

I wanted to highlight this excerpt from Wadhwa's quote, "These narratives don't remain confined to social media; they ripple globally. Media outlets in India and beyond amplify these stories, portraying the US as a country gripped by racism, xenophobia, and religious intolerance." When I observe things, I try to analyze deeper about what is actually underneath. A protest can have 10 people holding up a sign, and the media can report that only 10 people showed up, but it fails to account for the hundreds of people that passed by the protest and have newly formed ideas of what the protestors were engaging with. Similarly we do not know the scale of who saw the news regarding the H1B debate but if the media is echoing views that this is 'what Americans think,' we have no idea of the ideas that have been implanted into people's heads across the country including people from India who want to immigrate to the US.

While the debate about H1B visas started off as a civil discussion, the rising intensity of debate on the issue was largely driven by anonymous accounts. The issue then became front of mind to many people when the media picked up the story. Media outlets in the US and abroad immediately started reporting on the issue, pushing claims of racism from within America, and there were even echoes of spreading division across populations in the US. The vast majority of the racist tweets espoused on the platform were driven by anonymous accounts, with no proof of who the posters were or where they reside. An account with a Trump profile picture, with the location of a state in the US, such as Indiana or South Carolina, has no actual proof that there is any such person behind the post. Any account from any country can pretend to be an American and spread hate and racism towards an ethnic group in America. Indeed, one or many accounts may be the result of automation without even a person behind the post.

I primarily wrote this piece after completing months of observations of a platform that I grew to love that was full of unique creative ideas and great people to meet, that is now rife with discussions that don't lead anywhere, as well as surprisingly hateful campaigns driven by accounts that are effectively hidden behind an anonymous label. The catalysts for writing this piece were my observations of anonymous posts on X and seeing the media reporting afterward. I think it's important for the media to be skeptical of the discussions during the H1B debate, be aware of the authors of posts, and be cautious, avoiding reaction to something that may not even be real in the first place. I did my best to try to find an old tweet from a private message exchange saying an account was getting paid to spread anti Indian sentiment during the H1B visa debate however, I could not find it. Additionally, an account (@Cloudwatch199) that I found through extensive research posted, "As of today, I have exposed nearly 15 accounts masquerading as American or Canadian while spreading an absolutely insane level of hatred against Indian-origin folks. But here's the real kicker , I've uncovered serious intel that many of these operatives are being heavily funded by Iran and Qatar. This isn't just some random online hate spree. Thisis a coordinated, well-financed campaign of digital warfare , one that isn't just dangerous to me but to every single H-1B professional in this country." While I cannot verify if these claims are valid, and as @Cloudwatch199 on the surface also looks like it is an anonymous account, the post echoes my views of the potential dangers of anonymous accounts and regarding there views as mainstream thought and sentiment.