Hideo Kojima’s game studio has issued a backlash after fake posts circulated on social media and news outlets in which Kojima was wrongly identified as the assassin of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. in a tweetKojima Productions says it “strongly condemns the spread of fake news and rumors that give false information” and will “consider taking legal action in certain cases.”
Abe was shot dead by a man during his speech at a political campaign rally on Friday. Police apprehended the shooter, who was later identified as 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami, at the scene.
Soon after the incident, an internet troll on 4chan posted a racist image linking Kojima’s face to the shooter’s face (via) pcgamer) Another user replied to the post with three additional photos of Kojima that show metal Gear And death stranding The designer in a Soviet hat, as well as posing with images of Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara.
french comedian Georges Jordito later shared again These images were taken as part of a now-deleted “satirical” post on Twitter that said the perpetrator was Japanese soccer star Keisuke Honda. However, Damien Rieu, a far-right French politician associated with the country’s nationalist movement, took it seriously and Tweeted photos of Kojima Translated with text: “The far-left kills.” as indicated by Vice PresidentThe images were then picked up by Greek and Iranian news outlets who mistakenly used the images in their coverage of the murder.
Greek news channel is using photos of Hideo Kojima’s Soviet Ushanka, wearing a Joker T-shirt and standing next to a picture of Che Guevara – saying he is the killer of Shinzo Abe!? pic.twitter.com/JiwZKtA7pJ
— The Kavernacle (@TheKavernacle) 8 July 2022
Ryu has since deleted his tweet and issued an apology To Kojima, “I naively took a joke for information.” The Greek outlet, which included an image of Kojima in a broadcast, has since removed its segment from YouTube, while the Iranian newspaper has also corrected the image used in its report.