The assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Nara, Japan on 8th July sent a shockwave across the world. In a nation where gun violence and political attacks are rare, the assassination of a top government official stunned the whole country with Public outrage, handwringing, and vows of defiance by politicians and on social media becoming widespread.
While the world was observing a moment of silence in respect of Shinzo Abe, some international media outlets started publishing fake news with claims of identifying the killer. Many international media sites ran headline news with images of Hideo Kojima accusing him of assassination.
Kojima is known internationally among gamers and entertainment enthusiasts for the Metal Gear series and his unique game design and narratives. After his split with Konami, Hideo Kojima found his own production house, Kojima Production which released its first highly successful game in 2019 called Death Stranding. However, last week developer found himself in the headlines for the wrong reasons altogether.
The misinformation regarding Hideo Kojima being the face behind the assassination did not confine to the boundary of Japan. One such international incident took place when extreme right-winged leader Damien Rieu from France in a now deleted tweet wrote that the developer who was ideologically leftist was the one who killed the Japanese Prime Minister.
With international media sites wrongly accusing Hideo Kojima of being the one behind Shinjo Abe’s assassination, the public image of the founder of Kojima Production took a hit. The organization quickly released a public statement condemning the false reports and vowing to seek legal action soon.
As the situation stands, the organisation wants to clear the name of its founder from false charges and work towards restoring the good faith and Hideo’s reputations before the situation gets worse.
Kojima Produiction had to quickly step in to take action against such misinformation against Hideo Kojima as that would harm the image of the visionary developer and rally people against the organistation. Kojima Production is right in taking legal action against those involved as this would set an example for those spreading any piece of mis-information without a proper fact check.
