The billionaire entrepreneur commended CNBC’s “ace reporting” after the outlet was duped by pranksters.
Tesla CEO and Twitter owner Elon Musk took shots at the mainstream media after men posing as newly-fired Twitter employees tricked reporters, with at least two outlets taking the bait before quietly editing their stories.
The pair of pranksters were seen milling around Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters with boxes in hand on Friday, identifying themselves to journalists as ‘Rahul Ligma’ and ‘Daniel Johnson’ while claiming to be recently sacked software engineers.
While agencies such as CNBC and Bloomberg initially covered the story with a straight face, even citing interviews with the two men, both outlets later amended their articles to note that ‘Ligma’ and ‘Johnson’ were likely imposters, removing any direct mention of the hoaxers.
Turns out “Rahul Ligma” was not actually fired from Twitter, but instead was just some random dude with a box that got CNBC with a Ligma Nuts joke pic.twitter.com/zVoPIf5ker
— greg (@greg16676935420) October 28, 2022
An editor’s note added to CNBC’s article states that while the men claimed to be “fired employees of Twitter,” several reports emerged “suggesting it was a hoax.” It said it was still unable to confirm the identities of the two individuals. After publishing its own version of the story, Bloomberg later added that Twitter’s internal communications channels had “lit up with suspicion that the departing people were enacting a hoax, and were not in fact laid off.”
Having officially purchased Twitter earlier this week in a massive $44 billion buyout deal, Musk took to his newly acquired platform to mock the journalists who fell for the prank, singling out CNBC’s “ace reporting.”
Musk also joked that “Ligma Johnson had it coming,” sharing images of the two ‘fired employees’. He subtly highlighted the word-play meme that inspired the hoax (with ‘Ligma’ intended to sound like ‘lick my…’).
Ligma Johnson had it coming ???? ???? pic.twitter.com/CgjrOV5eM2
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022
During their interviews with the media, the two tricksters made a series of off-topic – and at times nonsensical – statements, with ‘Ligma’ declaring that “Michelle Obama wouldn’t have happened if Elon Musk owned Twitter.” His partner ‘Johnson’ also voiced grave concerns about “the future of celebrity conservatorship,” briefly mentioning early-2000s pop star Brittney Spears before trailing off.
Even before Musk officially took over the social media giant, news reports suggested the entrepreneur would seek to clean house at the company, including a Washington Post story alleging plans to fire up to 75% of its 7,500 workers. While Musk has denied the charge, insisting there are no mass-terminations in the works, he fired a handful of top executives immediately upon taking control of the firm on Thursday, including CEO Parag Agrawal.
In 2021, the company generated just $630 million in cash from operations.
Musk doesn’t have deep experience running a social media platform or in building super apps.
Nor a thoroughly thought-out strategy that fits Twitter’s difficult environment.
Musk may end up going down the drain
Wait and see. Juice will pay over 50 billion USD for Twitter. They wouldnt like to see their NWO agenda delayed by dissenting voices. Global financial system cannot collapse for them. They will need a minion to be US president and Twitter can hugley influence regimes changes in US and elsewhere. Musk will commercialise Twitter and at the same time allow more of controlled opposition views until Twitter is bought over. Blackrock alone controls over 40 trillion dollar assets. So 50 billion is cheap as chips for them to buy once Twitter shares are agin offered to piublic which will happen in an year or two.
You might need to explain that in plain English for idiots like me! Thanks in advance!