Hideo Kojima’s recreation studio has issued a response after fake posts circulated throughout social media and information retailers that misidentified Kojima because the assassin of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. In a tweet, Kojima Productions says it “strongly condemns the spread of fake news and rumors that convey false information” and “will consider taking legal action in some cases.”
On Friday, a person shot and killed Abe throughout his speech at a political marketing campaign rally. Police captured the shooter on the scene who was later recognized as 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami.
Shortly after the incident, an web troll on 4chan posted a racist picture that hyperlinks Kojima’s face with that of the shooter (through PCGamer). Another person replied to the submit with three further photos of Kojima that present the Metal Gear and Death Stranding designer in a Soviet cap, in addition to posing with pictures of Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara.
French comic Georges Jordito later reshared these pictures on Twitter as a part of a now-deleted “satirical” submit that mentioned the offender was Japanese soccer star Keisuke Honda. However, Damien Rieu, a far-right French politician related to the nation’s nationalist motion, took it severely and tweeted out images of Kojima with textual content translated to: “The far-left kills.” As identified by Vice, the photographs had been then picked up by Greek and Iranian information retailers that mistakenly used the images of their protection of the assassination.
Greek information channel utilizing photos of Hideo Kojima carrying a Soviet ushanka, Joker t-shirt and standing subsequent to a photograph of Che Guevara – saying he’s Shinzo Abe’s assassin!? pic.twitter.com/JiwZKtA7pJ
— The Kavernacle (@TheKavernacle) July 8, 2022
Rieu has since deleted his tweet and issued an apology to Kojima, noting “I naively took a joke for information.” The Greek outlet, which included a picture of Kojima in a broadcast, took its section off of YouTube, whereas the Iranian newspaper has additionally corrected the picture it utilized in its report.
