Kojima Productions has threatened legal action against those who falsely linked game designer Hideo Kojima to the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe this week.
On Friday, Abe was assassinated while giving a speech for Japan’s upcoming election. A suspect was arrested at the scene, who confessed to the shooting.
However, social media posts comparing the alleged killer’s appearance to Kojima have resulted in serious cases of misinformation.
On Twitter, far-right French politician Damien Rieu reposted images of Kojima with the comment: “The extreme left kills”.
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The tweet was eventually deleted, and the politician eventually issued an apology.
“I naively took the joke for information,” he wrote. “I didn’t think you could joke about assassinating a person but I was wrong because I didn’t check before I shared. My apologies to Hideo Kojima and Metal Gear fans.”
In some countries, the fake connection even made the news: in Greece, pictures of the Metal Gear Solid designer were shown on the news during a discussion about the alleged killer of Shinzo Abe.
Iran’s news agency also reportedly used images of Kojima when reporting on the assassination.
On Friday, the incidents caused Hideo Kojima to trend on Twitter, with about 35,000 tweets discussing “video game developer Hideo Kojima…misidentified as suspected shooter.”
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While Kojima Productions did not immediately acknowledge the situation, it released a statement on Saturday claiming it would consider legal action against “certain cases” of “fake news”.
“Kojima Productions strongly condemns the spread of fake news and rumors that convey false information,” they wrote. “We do not tolerate such defamation and will consider legal action in some cases.”
Shinzo Abe was shot dead during a speech in the city of Nara on Friday morning. Security guards at the scene attacked the suspect, Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, who later admitted to shooting Abe with a homemade gun and said he had a grudge against “a specific organization.”
