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Reporter Duped By Fake Twitter Engineer ‘Rahul Ligma’ Apologizes Live On-Air

[Twitter Screenshot Diedre Bosa]

Brianna Lyman News and Commentary Writer
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The CNBC reporter that was duped by a man posing as a fired Twitter engineer apologized live on-air Monday to viewers for not doing her due diligence in checking the veracity of the story.

CNBC’s Deirdre Bosa tweeted Friday that an “entire team of data engineers” was let go after Elon Musk officially took over Twitter.

“These are two of them,” Bosa tweeted alongside video of two alleged employees. One man told reporters his name was “Rahul Ligma” while the other identified himself as “Daniel Johnson.”

Bosa later apologized, saying the two men were actually faking it.

“I tweeted that a team of data engineers were laid off at Twitter after speaking to two people outside of headquarters, who claimed that they were. They were not real employees and I didn’t do enough to confirm who they were, they got me, and that is on me, we, I regret the mistake.”

“Rahul” held a copy of Michelle Obama’s 2018 memoir, “Becoming,” while “Johnson” said he didn’t know how he would make payments on his Tesla. “Johnson” described Musk’s idea of free speech as “Nazis saying that trans women shouldn’t use women’s locker rooms” and told reporters he had to go home to “touch base with [his] husband and wife.” (RELATED: Elon Musk Is Trying To Snip Twitter Execs’ Severance Packages)

Several on Twitter were quick to point that Bosa was likely duped, as the combination of the names indicated a joke, with “Johnson,” being a euphemism for phallus, and “Ligma” being the setup to a crude joke.