After game developer Hideo Kojima was falsely identified as the assassin of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, his studio Kojima Productions has issued a statement in relation to “fake news.”
Yesterday (July 9), the official English Twitter account of the developer said in a statement: “Kojima Productions strongly condemns the spread of fake news and rumors that convey false information. We do not tolerate such libel and will consider taking legal action in some cases.”
#KojimaProductions strongly condemns the spread of fake news and rumors that convey false information. We do not tolerate such libel and will consider taking legal action in some cases. pic.twitter.com/fDi0FR9kB0
— KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS (Eng) (@KojiPro2015_EN) July 9, 2022
Following the news of Abe’s assassination, French politician Damien Rieu responded to an MP’s tweet with the caption “the far-left kills,” alongside multiple pictures of Kojima. Rieu then deleted the tweet and issued an apology on July 8, stating: “I naively took a joke for information. I didn’t think we could make humor about the assassination of a man but I was wrong not to check before sharing.”
According to Kotaku, racist online jokes about Abe’s alleged assassin looking like Kojima started the misidentification, with a Greek news channel using photos of Kojima when identifying the assassin.
The alleged gunman behind Abe’s assassination was Tetsya Yamagami, who apparently used a homemade gun during the incident. As reported in the BBC, a night vigil will take place for Abe on Monday July 11, with his funeral to follow on Tuesday. Yamagami is currently in police custody after apparently admitting to the assassination of Abe.
Kojima Productions is known for Death Stranding, with Kojima himself announcing last month that the studio is working in partnership with Microsoft on its next title, which is set to leverage the power of the cloud in some way.
In other news, Logan Paul has purchased the most expensive Pokémon card in the world and has decided to sell it as an NFT.
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