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Kojima Productions has threatened legal against media outlets falsely linking Hideo Kojima to the assassination of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe.
Abe was assassinated on Friday, whilst giving a speech for Japan’s upcoming elections. The police arrested a suspect on the scene, and he has admitted to the crime.
But there were many social media posts comparing the assassin’s likeness to that of Hideo Kojima. And this then led to the spread of misinformation. Far-right French politician Damien Rieu retweeted images of Kojima, with the caption “The extreme left kills.”
Rieu then deleted the tweet, and eventually released a statement of apology:
“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. My apologies to #HideoKojima and to the fans of #MetalGear.”
Greek and Iranian news broadcasts showed images of Kojima while discussing the assassination.
On Saturday, Kojima Productions published the following 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.”
In other recent Kojima-related news, the celebrated Metal Gear and Death Stranding creator recently announced a partnership with Xbox. We don’t know what this game will be, but we know that it will entail cloud technology.
