American business news channel, CNBC, fell for a prank by random strangers, who posed as Twitter employees and claimed that they were fired by the company’s new owner Elon Musk. The incident took place on Friday (US local time).
CNBC mistook two strangers for ex-Twitter employees after they were spotted with boxes near the entrance of the company’s headquarters in San Francisco. When quizzed about their ouster, the duo decided to play along.
“I am a data engineer. We were having a lot of problems. And then Elon came and pulled the plug on the whole team,” one of the men, who identified as ‘Daniel Johnson’ was heard as saying.
He claimed to have worked at Twitter for 6 years. “I respect Elon Musk but the kind of stuff that he said lately is concerning. I own a Tesla. How am I going to make car payments,” he emphasised.
‘Daniel’ also expressed concern about how ‘free speech’ on Twitter, under Musk, can empower Nazis who hate transgenders. “Listen, I got to touch base with my husband and wife,” he said before making his way out.
Nonetheless, Daniel’s associate decided to continue the prank and claimed that his name was ‘Rahul Ligma.’ As per Know Your Meme, Ligma is a fictional testicular disease, which is meant to make people say ‘lick my balls’ in response to the joke.
Lib reporters outside Twitter HQ get absolutely TROLLED by SAVAGE actors pretending to be fired software engineers
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 28, 2022
The looks on their faces when he says his name is PRICELESS
“Rahul Ligma” pic.twitter.com/l4IIxBdrdw
He made bizarre assertions, following his supposed ‘ouster’ from the social media company. “It makes me worry about the future of our democracy… the future of celebrity conservatorship. I mean, when Britney [Spears] happened…” Rahul Ligma claimed.
He continued, “Michelle Obama wouldn’t have happened if Elon Musk owned Twitter. Obama in 2008 wouldn’t have happened without Elon Musk owning Twitter…I even own a Tesla, man. I’m a big fan of clean energy, climate change, even free speech too.”
Other news organisations including Bloomberg and ‘Live Now from Fox’ also fell for the prank and passed if off as ‘genuine news’ about Twitter employees being fired by Elon Musk.
Journalists mistake prank for ‘real news’, goes berserk on Twitter
CNBC ‘Tech Check’ journalist, Deidre Bosa, was one of those who mistook the prank for real news. She exclaimed, “It’s happening. Entire team of data engineers let go. These are two of them. #TwitterTakeover.” The archive version of the tweet can be accessed here.
It’s happening
— Deirdre Bosa (@dee_bosa) October 28, 2022
Entire team of data engineers let go. These are two of them#TwitterTakeover pic.twitter.com/gNSl6qSCKU
“They are visibly shaken. Daniel tells us he owns a Tesla and doesn’t know how he’s going to make payments…To be clear – I don’t think the Tesla was top of mind, I think Elon Musk was,” she further claimed.
(To be clear – I don’t think the Tesla was top of mind, I think @elonmusk was)
— Deirdre Bosa (@dee_bosa) October 28, 2022
Later, she informed that the CNBC team could not confirm whether or not the two individuals were Twitter employees.
Elon Musk trolls CNBC
The Tesla CEO did not waste any opportunity to troll the US media for failing to verify the identity of the supposed ‘Twitter employees.’ He tweeted, “Ligma Johnson had it coming (or rathercumming).”
Ligma Johnson had it coming 🍆 💦 pic.twitter.com/CgjrOV5eM2
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022
In another tweet, Elon Musk took potshots at CNBC and applauded the media organisation for its ‘ace reporting.’
Ace reporting by @cnbc 🤣🤣
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 29, 2022
Netizens also joined Musk in trolling the news outlet. “Friends inside Twitter tell me that Ruhal Ligma’s boss, Dinesh Sukondeez has also been laid off and is walking out of the building now. #TwitterTakeover,” wrote one ‘yoni rechtman.’
Friends inside Twitter tell me that Ruhal Ligma’s boss, Dinesh Sukondeez has also been laid off and is walking out of the building now. #TwitterTakeover
— yoni rechtman (@yrechtman) October 28, 2022
Another Twitter user trolled, “So terrible. Just heard a mutual friend Fumunda Deeznuts was also laid off along with his entire team. #TwitterTakeover”
So terrible. Just heard a mutual friend Fumunda Deeznuts was also laid off along with his entire team. #TwitterTakeover
— gaby.eth (@gaby_goldberg) October 28, 2022
On Friday (October 28), Tesla CEO Elon Musk fired top executives of Twitter Inc. including CEO Parag Agrawal and its legal Head Vijaya Gadde, reported Reuters.
The development came immediately after Musk took over the ownership of the micro-blogging platform on October 28. Besides Agrawal and Gadde, the company’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Ned Segal was also fired for misleading the Tesla CEO and the investors about fake accounts on Twitter.
Reuters reported that Parag Agrawal and Ned Segal were ‘escorted out’ of Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco after the $44-billion deal came to fruition. “The bird is freed”, Elon Musk had tweeted about the development.
Elon Musk had vowed to eliminate spam bots from the micro-blogging site, protect Twitter from becoming an eco chamber for hate and division and make algorithms open-sourced.
