The Fake Assassin Posts on Social Media
In a political campaign event on Friday, a guy shot and assassinated former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as he addressed the crowd. The assassin's identity was Tetsuya Yamagami, a 41-year-old Japanese man. He was apprehended by police at the site and later confirmed as the gunman. Despite that, people on social media began their own 'satirical' theories on who Abe's assassin was and even went too far with their posts.
According to PC Gamer, a racist graphic linking Kojima's face to that of the gunman was released on 4chan shortly after the tragedy. The Verge also found that another user responded to the post with three more photos of Kojima, which show the Metal Gear and Death Stranding creator wearing a Soviet cap and standing with portraits of Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara.
Later, French comedian Georges Jordito crossposted these photographs on Twitter as part of a now-deleted "satirical" tweet accusing Japanese soccer player Keisuke Honda of the crime. It appears it was all fun and games until Damien Rieu, a far-right French politician affiliated with a nationalist movement, took the post seriously and tweeted pictures of Kojima with the caption "The far-left kills," as Vice noted.
Things became worse when these images were then scooped up by Greek and Iranian news outlets, which used them incorrectly in their coverage of Abe's assassination.
What Happened After?
Rieu, who expounded this situation into something worse, has already deleted his tweet and apologized to Kojima, saying, "I stupidly took a joke for information." On the other hand, a Greek outlet, which used a picture of Kojima in a program, has removed its piece from YouTube, and the Iranian daily has also updated the image it used in its article.
Meanwhile, Hideo Kojima's game company has responded through Twitter after false and seemingly destructing statements about Kojima emerged on social media and news sites, misrepresenting him as the shooter of Abe. In a tweet, Kojima Productions states that while they strongly deplore the distribution of false news and speculations, they would not hesitate to seek legal action in specific circumstances should they need to.
#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
In relation to this story, Tech Times also reported that there were videos of Abe's assassination that went viral almost immediately on various social media networks, including Facebook and Twitter. To stop the recurrence of "harmful content" on extremely sensitive footage, Twitter chose to remove all postings related to Abe's death due to the "graphic" violence they presented to viewers.
Related Article: Shinzo Abe Assassination Videos Taken Down on Facebook, Twitter
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Written by Thea Felicity
