Hideo Kojima’s studio says it will consider ‘legal action’ after fake assassin posts circulate

CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images

A response has been issued by Hideo Kojima's game studio after they were wrongly identified as the assassins of former Japanese Prime Minister Abe. The production company says it will consider taking legal action in some cases and condemns the spread of fake news.

A man shot and killed a man at a political rally. The man who shot at the police was later identified as 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami.

A troll on 4chan posted a racist image that linked the shooter and Kojima. A user replied to the post with three more pictures of Kojima, one of which shows him in a Soviet cap, as well as posing with images of Che Guevara.

The images were reshared by a French comedian as part of a joke about a Japanese soccer player. However, Damien Rieu, a far-right French politician associated with the country's nationalist movement, took it seriously and sent out images of Kojima with text that said "The far- left kills." The images were picked up by Greek and Iranian news outlets that used them in their coverage of the assassination.

Greek news channel using pictures of Hideo Kojima wearing a Soviet ushanka, Joker t-shirt and standing next to a photo of Che Guevara - saying he’s Shinzo Abe’s assassin!? pic.twitter.com/JiwZKtA7pJ

— The Kavernacle (@TheKavernacle) July 8, 2022

Rieu apologized for taking a joke for information. The Iranian newspaper has corrected the image it used in its report after the Greek outlet took its segment off of the internet.