Two men claiming to be Twitter employees fired by Elon Musk were seen outside of Twitter headquarters in San Francisco carrying boxes. When questioned, the two men identified themselves as “software engineers.” One of the men identified himself as “Rahul Ligma” — a name that gave the hoax away to those familiar with the crude internet meme.
Reuters fell for the hoax, as did CNBC and Bloomberg. who reports there were others involved in the hoax.
A handful of people posing as Twitter employees departed from the company’s San Francisco headquarters carrying boxes of belongings. Inside the company, Slack channels lit up with suspicion that the people were enacting a hoax, and were not in fact laid off, people familiar with the matter said.
Bloomberg was unable to verify the identities of the people leaving the building.
It’s rumored that new Twitter boss Elon Musk is going to fire 75% of the workforce. The hoax played into the media’s eagerness to show how heartless and cruel Musk is for firing people with no warning.
“Ligma” is, of course, also an internet hoax designed to elicit the response “lick my balls” from people who are in on the joke. That didn’t stop multiple outlets, including CNBC and Bloomberg, from running headlines Friday saying that laid-off Twitter employees were leaving the building carrying boxes.
Musk fired many of Twitter’s top execs Thursday evening and has signaled that he will in fact lay off employees. But Ligma is not one of them. A spokesperson for Twitter didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The “interview” with Mr. “Ligma” is hilarious. It’s like a bad imitation of the ultimate woke social media employee.
“It makes me worry about the future of our democracy… the future of celebrity conservatorship. I mean, when Britney [Spears] happened…”
“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.”
And the press just lapped it up.
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