We came across a number of posts on the following topic on the social media platform X (link):
The posts suggest that an ‘IT specialist on an H1B visa’ from India named Ajay Mishra had been fined $85 for defecating in public at a New York airport.
The posts all suggested that the individual was surprised by the fine, questioning why he was not allowed to defecate in public and arguing that the fine violated his personal freedoms. He allegedly argued that he had more freedom in India than in the US.
Many of the posts we found on the topic shared similar language in the text descriptions, suggesting that there is a large possibility of the posts sharing content from a single origin or the accounts belonging to a network of accounts that post content in a coordinated manner (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7).
A web keyword search of the topic, however, turned up no results that suggested the incident had been reported on news outlets. Instead, we found that the viral posts had extended to other platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and ifunny.co, a site that allows users to post content that are ‘memes’ or that they find funny.
A Lingering Odour
When we took a closer look at the image, however, we found that the words ‘Sands T(h)eatre’ were visible through the glass surface behind the man or on the surface’s reflections. More faint, but also visible, were the words ‘Marina Bay Sa’.
The reflections also appear to show a building that looks similar to the Esplanade, which is located across Marina Bay from Marina Bay Sands and Sands Theatre.
Singaporeans familiar with the Marina Bay area may therefore be able to recognise the location of the image which appears to depict the area around Marina Bay Sands (MBS).
We ran a reverse image search of the image and found that the images used in the posts (albeit with some differences in cropping and blurring) could also be found in reports in major media outlets in Singapore such as the Straits Times Stomp page and Today Online on 1 November 2023.
The reports announced that a police investigation had been opened into a man who had been spotted on camera defecating at an open public area at The Shoppes at MBS on 30 October 2023, though the man was not identified. The images had also been shared on social media by accounts that posted regularly in Hindi, Mandarin and Bengali.
After refining our keyword search and focusing on Singapore media, we found updated accounts of the incident in CNA and Today Online.
CNA’s article, which is dated 19 September 2024, reports that the man, an Indian national, had been a construction worker in Singapore, and having drunk three bottles of hard liquor, had entered the casino at Marina Bay Sands on the night of 29 October 2023.
Heavily intoxicated when leaving the casino the next morning, the man could not locate the toilet and proceeded to relieve himself at the entrance to The Shoppes at MBS. He then left Singapore the next day, and was arrested in June 2024 after returning to Singapore when he was identified upon trying to enter the casino again.
The man, who was fined $400, was not named Ajay Mishra and he was not an IT specialist. Neither did he argue that the fine violated his personal freedoms or that he should be allowed to defecate in public.
Content Manipulated to Serve Anti-Immigration Narratives
With key elements of the incident falsified, it appears likely that the story behind the image had been intentionally manipulated.
As reflected in the manipulated details in the claim posts, the posts are likely an attempt to shift the narrative around the US’s H-1B visa.
The H-1B visa programme, which has been at the forefront of the political debate in the US recently, allows skilled foreign workers to enter the country, though some perceive this as detrimental to US workers. Indian nationals are the largest group to benefit from the H-1B visa programme, receiving 72% of the H-1B visas.
While US President Donald Trump tightened the supply of H-1B visas in his first term, since re-election, he has been more favourable towards the programme, in opposition to other conservative groups who want to reduce immigration levels.
As such, we find the claim that an Indian IT specialist on a H-1B visa was caught defecating at a New York airport, and that he defended his actions, to be false.
This claim has also been investigated and found to be false by the Indian factchecking outlet D-FRAC. D-FRAC is a non-profit, independent media organisation based in India with a record of accurate and credible factchecks. Black Dot Research has previously encountered the work of D-FRAC while conducting our factcheck investigations.
