Turns out “Rahul Ligma” was not actually fired from Twitter, but instead was just some random dude with a box that got CNBC with a Ligma Nuts joke.
A pair of pranksters posing as laid-off Twitter employees tricked multiple media outlets Friday as the public anxiously awaited news on whether Elon Musk had begun axing staffers.
CNBC’s Deirdre Bosa interviewed two people who identified themselves as Twitter employees and were seen near the company’s San Francisco headquarters carrying cardboard boxes.
Folks soon followed up to Bosa and others noting that one of the pranksters had told reporters their name was "Rahul Ligma." For those not terminally online, that's a joke about, well, there's no delicate way to put this...balls. Because Ligma sounds like lick my and then...you can guess where the joke typically goes. It's juvenile and dumb, sure. But that's the internet, baby.
A handful of outlets, like CNBC and Bloomberg, initially fell for the hoax. Both outlets issued statements and changed their stories. Bosa tweeted: "fyi -some questions being raised about whether these are really twitter employees."
Musk arrived at the company’s headquarters in San Francisco on Wednesday and had been meeting with engineers and advertising executives.
Musk tweeted a video of himself walking into Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco carrying a kitchen sink with the caption: "let that sink in!"
Musk also updated his Twitter description to “Chief Twit." Skepticism immediately emerged on social media. One of the pranksters said his name was “Rahul Ligma” — a reference to a popular internet meme — and held a copy of Michelle Obama’s book “Becoming” aloft while speaking to reporters. The other said his name was “Daniel Johnson.”
CNBC, Bloomberg, the Daily Mail and NBC were among the outlets that reported layoffs were underway after the duo spoke to the media.
You got conned.
Name is “Rahul LIGMA”. “It’s happening,” CNBC’s Bosa tweeted. Entire team of data engineers let go. These are two of them.”
“They are visibly shaken,” Bosa added. “Daniel tells us he owns a Tesla and doesn’t know how he’s going to make payments.”
ABC7 Bay Area reporter Suzanne Phan also tweeted about the alleged Twitter employees, writing that one had claimed “he was terminated during a zoom meeting.”
Bloomberg later reported that Twitter’s internal slack channels have “lit up with suspicion” that it was a hoax. The Verge confirmed the duo were not actually ex-Twitter workers and had carried out a hoax.
As chatter about a potential hoax intensified, Bosa acknowledged there was confusion about whether layoffs were actually underway. CNBC updated its story to acknowledge it wasn’t immediately able to verify their identities.
Skepticism immediately emerged as one prankster said his name was “Rahul Ligma" - a reference to a popular internet meme - and held a copy of Michelle Obama’s book “Becoming" aloft while speaking to reporters. The other said his name was “Daniel Johnson."
The pranksters gave an interview to prominent US media outlets outside Twitter's office. Later Bloomberg reported that Twitter’s internal slack channels have “lit up with suspicion" that it was a hoax. While The Verge confirmed that the duo were not actually ex-Twitter workers and had carried out a hoax.
Subsequently, reports emerged the company fired Agrawal, Gadde, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, and General Counsel Sean Edgett.
Agrawal, 38, was appointed Twitter CEO in November last year after the social media site’s co-founder Jack Dorsey had stepped down.
An IIT Bombay and Stanford alumnus, Agrawal joined Twitter over a decade ago when there were fewer than 1,000 employees at the company.
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