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Media trolled as 'fired Twitter engineers' turn out to be pranksters

Reporters fall for hoax as two men, outside Twitter headquarters in California, give interviews and identify themselves as terminated "Rahul Ligma", a popular meme reference, and "Daniel Johnson."

TRTWorld

Many media outlets, including CNBC, Bloomberg, the Daily Mail, and NBC reported the ongoing layoffs in Twitter after the pranksters spoke to US media.

Two people who claimed to be Twitter employees and gave interviews to reporters outside the Elon Musk-acquired firm's headquarters in California have emerged to be pranksters pretending to be laid off Twitter staff.

The two raised skepticism during their interview on Friday with CNBC’s Deirdre Bosa after one of them said his name is "Rahul Ligma", a popular meme reference.

The other identified himself as "Daniel Johnson."

Both were seen outside Twitter's San Francisco office carrying cardboard boxes and speaking with reporters.

"It's happening. Entire team of data engineers let go. These are two of them," tweeted Bosa.

Many media outlets, including CNBC, Bloomberg, the Daily Mail, and NBC reported the ongoing layoffs in Twitter after the two spoke to the media.

Suzanne Phan of ABC7 Bay Area reported one of the alleged Twitter staffers said he was "terminated during a Zoom meeting."

A Bloomberg report later said Twitter's internal Slack channels had been flooded with suspicions, and the Verge confirmed that the two pranksters weren't actually ex-Twitter employees.

A product manager at Twitter, Paul Lee, called out CNBC over its "misinformation."

"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," Lee tweeted.

"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."

You got conned.
Name is “Rahul LIGMA”

C’mon man pic.twitter.com/EdcuIk6jCP
— Dr. Randy J. Marsh ➐ (@WealthyCFO) October 28, 2022

Layoffs

Musk's acquisition of the social media platform left Twitter's approximately 7,500 employees fretting about their future.

Among Musk's first acts in power on Thursday were the reported firing of chief executive Parag Agrawal and other senior officials -- though the company did not reply to the AFP news agency's request for comment and Agrawal still listed himself as CEO on his Twitter profile.

Musk tried to calm fears among employees that major layoffs are coming and assured advertisers that his past criticism of Twitter's content moderation rules would not harm its appeal.

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

Content moderation council

Meanwhile, Musk tweeted on Friday that Twitter will form a content moderation council "with widely diverse viewpoints."

He said that no major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before the council convenes.

The new Twitter owner said he did not have a hand in reinstating rapper Kanye West's account, which was suspended by the micro-blogging site earlier this month.

"Anyone suspended for minor & dubious reasons will be freed from twitter jail," Musk tweeted later.

SOURCE: TRTWorld and agencies