Elon Musk Responds After Pranksters Posing As Laid-Off Twitter Employees Fool Media Outlets

After closing the $44 billion Twitter Inc TWTR buyout, Elon Musk's stance on Twitter employees is anticipated to be one of the most significant steps as he takes over the company. A report suggests he has no plans to cut staff, but he did not explicitly rule out layoffs. 

Amidst this commotion, two pranksters fooled media outlets as news of the layoffs of Twitter's former employees circulated online. According to the report, pranksters showed up as ex-employee of Twitter. They carried cardboard boxes outside the company's headquarters in San Francisco, showing that they had been laid off from the company after Musk's takeover.

A reporter from CNBC approached them, and upon questioning, one of them said his name was Daniel Johnson, and another identified as Rahul with the surname of "Ligma".

The CNBC reporter then went on Twitter, and in a now-deleted tweet wrote, "It's happening. The entire team of data engineers let go. These are two of them. They are visibly shaken. Daniel tells us he owns a Tesla and doesn't know how he will make payments."

Soon after, skepticism emerged on social media, as one of the pranksters said his name was "Rahul Ligma" — which everyone related to a popular internet meme. 

One Newsmax reporter tweeted that Twitter headquarters got trolled by savage actors pretending to be Twitter employees. 

Musk took the opportunity to troll the fake media reports, tweeting, "Ligma Johnson had it coming".

In response to one of his followers' tweets, Musk took potshots at CNBC.   

Dogecoin DOGE/USD co-creator Billy Markus, who goes by the username Shibetoshi Nakamoto, responded to the bogus media reports and said, "it was a pretty good prank considering how many people fell for it without using their brains."

Musk responded to him with a laughing emoji.