Pranksters posing as 'fired' Twitter employees fool media houses

NewYork, Oct 29: Media channels have been desperate to get sound bytes and videos related to the recent Twitter takeover by Elon Musk. Making full use of this desperation, two pranksters fooled media outlets as they stood outside Twitter headquarters in San Francisco, posing as Twitter's former employees who had been fired after Elon Musk took over as the CEO.

According to the New York Post, two pranksters with cardboard boxes in their hands looked like two laid-off Twitter employees outside the company's headquarters in San Francisco. Deirdre Bosa, a journalist for CNBC, approached the duo to get a sound byte from them. While one said his name was 'Daniel Johnson', another identified as 'Rahul Ligma'- a cheeky internet joke and spoke to reporters while holding a copy of Michelle Obama's book "Becoming."

However, it later emerged that the duo were pranksters, not laid-off Twitter employees, but not before multiple media outlets fell for their prank. CNBC and Daily Mail were among the publications that reported on the 'layoffs' at Twitter.

Software engineer and his buddy got fired from @Twitter #ELONMUSK #Twitter #twitterhq #fired #TwitterTakeover #elonmusktwitter #twitter pic.twitter.com/RkDGXm3nAH

— Rezowan Siddique Reza (@Rezowan_) October 28, 2022

"It's happening. Entire team of data engineers let go. These are two of them," CNBC reporter Deirdre Bosa tweeted alongside a picture of the duo.

It’s happening

Entire team of data engineers let go. These are two of them#TwitterTakeover pic.twitter.com/gNSl6qSCKU

— Deirdre Bosa (@dee_bosa) October 28, 2022

However, Elon Musk responded to the prankster incident with a witty tweet saying 'Ligma Johnson had it coming.'

Ligma Johnson had it coming 🍆 💦 pic.twitter.com/CgjrOV5eM2

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022

Highlighting the lapse in reporting, Twitter product manager Paul Lee wrote,''Quite ironic that a major news outlet failed to do basic diligence and fell for a crisis actor prank, resulting in the spread of misinfo, on the first day of new ownership. All you had to do was ask to see a badge or look for bird-themed stuff in the boxes." Lee also clarified that Twitter employees do not use Zoom to communicate, thus dispelling what one of the pranksters had said about being fired during a Zoom meeting.

Quite ironic that a major news outlet failed to do basic diligence and fell for a crisis actor prank, resulting in the spread of misinfo, on the first day of new ownership. All you had to do was ask to see a badge or look for bird-themed stuff in the boxes. Also we don’t use Zoom https://t.co/QtIrBjOH3H

— Paul Lee (@BeeBimBop) October 28, 2022

It must be noted that Twitter fired four executives on October 28, including CEO Parag Agrawal and legal executive Vijaya Gadde. "The bird is freed," billionaire Musk tweeted after completing Twitter's $44 billion takeover.