San Francisco (US): Since Elon Musk took over as Twitter Inc.’s new owner on Thursday, news about the layoffs of the company’s veteran staff have circulated online.
While Musk took over Twitter, some pranksters even attempted to dominate the conversation. As the public awaited news on whether Tesla CEO had started laying off employees, two pranksters posing as laid-off Twitter employees deceived several media sites, according to the New York Post. Two guys carrying boxes are seen standing near the entrance of Twitter’s San Francisco facility, claiming to have been fired by Musk, in a number of pictures and videos that went viral on Friday.
After Elon Musk takeover, pranksters pretend to be laid-off Twitter employees
Read @ANI Story | https://t.co/8xc7K9dHhT#elonmusktwitter #ElonMuskBuyTwitter #Twitter pic.twitter.com/y84te6ioLP
— ANI Digital (@ani_digital) October 29, 2022
Elon Musk witty reaction
Elon Musk responded to the entire prankster incident with a witty tweet that read, “Ligma Johnson had it coming.”
Ligma Johnson had it coming 🍆 💦 pic.twitter.com/CgjrOV5eM2
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022
Musk’s tweet came in response to one of the jokesters who told reporters that his name was “Rahul Ligma” (a play on a well-known internet meme) and hoisted a copy of Michelle Obama’s book “Becoming” aloft. The other identified himself as Daniel Johnson.
Employees with boxes in hand
A number of journalists and media organisations published stories of Twitter employees fleeing the corporate headquarters with boxes of personal things in hand. According to Mashable, one of the most well-known posts came from CNBC’s Deirdre Bosa, who wrote that a “entire team of data engineers” had been fired.
One person who criticised the well-known media outlet for its claim was Paul Lee, a product manager at Twitter.
On the first day of new ownership, Lee tweeted, “very ironic that a major news organisation failed to do basic diligence and fell for a crisis actor joke, resulting in the propagation of misinformation.” “All you had to do was ask to see a badge or search the boxes for items with avian themes. We don’t utilise Zoom, as well.
On Wednesday, Musk, meanwhile, was photographed lugging a sink bowl through the hallways of the Twitter offices in San Francisco. Let that sink in!, Musk tweeted alongside a video of himself carrying a kitchen sink.
Chief Twit
Elon Musk also changed his Twitter handle to “Chief Twit” immediately after he suggested that the acquisition of Twitter would proceed. Musk, who had long expressed interest in purchasing Twitter, terminated the partnership in July, claiming that Twitter had broken the terms of their agreement by exaggerating the number of spam and phoney bot accounts available on its network. The market had a strong fall following Musk’s announcement of the contract termination.
Later, Twitter sued Musk, alleging that he had used bots as a cover to back out of a transaction.
