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Pranksters fooled some media members into pondering they’d been laid off by Elon Musk rapidly after his Twitter takeover. In actuality, that they had been making reference to a typical internet joke involving testicles. Yeah. Not good.
A few completely completely different media members and media retailers posted about Twitter employees leaving the company’s HQ, containers of personal belongings in hand. One of the more prominent posts bought right here from CNBC’s Deirdre Bosa, who posted that an “entire team of data engineers” had been let go.
Folks rapidly adopted as a lot as Bosa and others noting that one in every of many pranksters had instructed reporters their establish was “Rahul Ligma.” For these not terminally on-line, that may be a joke about, successfully, there’s no delicate technique to place this…balls. Because Ligma seems like lick my after which…you presumably can guess the place the joke normally goes. It’s juvenile and dumb, constructive. But that’s the internet, little one.
A handful of outlets, like CNBC and Bloomberg, initially fell for the hoax. Both retailers issued statements and adjusted their tales. Bosa tweeted: “fyi -some questions being raised about whether these are really twitter employees.”
There had been some completely different clues the actors will not have been on the up-and-up. As The Verge noted, definitely one in every of them says, “It makes me worry about the future of our democracy…the future of celebrity conservatorship. I mean, when Britney [Spears] happened…”
The Verge moreover reported that they confirmed the id of “Ligma” and that they weren’t a Twitter employee.
Also the one which acknowledged their establish was Ligma randomly held up a picture of Michelle Obama and acknowledged, “Michelle Obama wouldn’t have happened if Elon Musk owned Twitter.” That might’ve been a clue.
Yeah, so, it was questionable, at most interesting. To be truthful to the media retailers, it’s a pretty uncommon issue to fake, significantly considering Musk did lay off top executives after taking over Twitter. It moreover bought right here out that he floated the idea of firing 75 % of Twitter employees.
Musk, well-known for a juvenile humorousness and distrust of the media, after all commented on the Ligma hoax rapidly after it broke. “Ligma Johnson had it coming,” he joked.
The precise mass layoffs might nonetheless come. But for now, at least the fake ones appeared to make Twitter’s new proprietor giggle.
