On December 27, 2024, @boneGPT posted an image depicting Sriram Krishnan as a butter chicken amid an ongoing H-1B visa row. The X page tweeted:
“Here is what Sriram Krishnan would look like if he was butter chicken”
Sriram Krishnan’s appointment as a senior policy adviser for artificial intelligence in Trump’s cabinet has sparked a debate over H-1B visas that allow employers to temporarily employ foreign professionals to work in specialty professions.
@boneGPT’s tweet garnered 2.3 million views since it was posted and netizens took to X to express their opinions on the food-related depiction of Krishnan. Commenting on the same, an X user tweeted:
“This is racism. Remember, the actions you take today will shape the consequences you face tomorrow. Stand for equality, because silence supports injustice.”
“He is more intelligent and educated than your whole generation,” another X user commented.
“Wow, this is actually the first time I have seen this kind of racism against Indians. All we do is work hard and mind our own business,” another X user mentioned.
“You need to be de-platformed,” another netizen stated.
On the other hand, some netizens played along with the X post and some defended claims about the post being racist:
“yummy am gonna order some today with the money i made by stealing jobs,” one X user said.
“love how this blew up because it was supposedly “racist” lol,” another netizen commented.
“comedy > racism,” another netizen mentioned.
Laura Loomer apologizes for revealing Sriram Krishnan’s FEC records: Details explored
President-elect Donald Trump named Sriram Krishnan a senior AI policy advisor on December 22, 2024. On December 24, 2024, investigative journalist Laura Loomer took to X to express discontent over Krishnan being chosen for Trump’s cabinet.
Loomer attached Krishnan’s tweet asking DOGE co-chair Elon Musk to take steps to remove caps for green cards or unlock skilled immigration. She further tweeted:
“How will be control immigration in our country and promote America First innovation when Trump appointed this guy who wants to REMOVE all restrictions on green card caps in the United States so that foreign students (which makes up 78% of the employees in Silicon Valley) can come to the US and take jobs that should be given to American STEM students.”
Additionally, in a now-deleted tweet dated December 26, 2024, Laura Loomer revealed Sriram Krishnan’s Federal Election Commission (FEC) records questioning him why he donated to Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign a month before the 2024 election. She claimed that Krishnan didn’t even vote for Trump and wanted to infiltrate his admin.
However, on December 29, 2024, Laura Loomer took to X to apologize to Sriram Krishnan for revealing his FEC information. Loomer mentioned in her tweet:
“I deeply apologize for accidentally doxxing Sriram by sharing public FEC records with his personal info. It was an honest mistake, and I take full responsibility. I’ve removed the post and I promise that I will be more careful in the future when I post FEC records.”
In another tweet on the same day, Loomer said that her intent wasn’t to inflict harm on anyone. She also added that she believes more speech is the answer, not less, tagging Elon Musk and Krishnan in the tweet.
Sriram Krishnan was born and educated in India. He moved to the U.S. in 2007 on an L-1 visa allowing intra-company transfer to work at Microsoft. After staying in Seattle for a little over 6 years, he moved to Silicon Valley working senior product roles at Twitter, Facebook, Snap, and Yahoo. Krishnan became a citizen of the U.S. in 2016.
Edited by Ameen Fatima
