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Politicians and media outlets have falsely identified pictures of video game director Hideo Kojima as the assassin of Japanese PM Shinzo Abe.
As news about the assassination of Japanese ex-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe spread, so did videos showing the aftermath. This inevitably led to videos of the alleged perpetrator, Tetsuya Yamagami, spreading on the internet. Upon watching said videos, some people on forum sites noted that he looked like famed video game director Hideo Kojima, sharing pictures of him beside the pictures of the actual Shinzo Abe assassin.
In a now deleted tweet, French far-right politician Damien Rieu accused the far-left of murdering Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe and used photos of game developer Hideo Kojima instead of pictures of the current suspect Tetsuya Yamagami pic.twitter.com/2zpmL5kVnD
— Nox 🐸 (@NoxDawn) July 8, 2022
However, this comparison didn't translate well into the real world. Far-right French politician Damien Rieu saw these images and somehow ended up concluding that Kojima's photos were actual photos of Yamagami, of which none have been actually published by Japanese law enforcement so far. Rieu said in a now-deleted tweet that “The extreme left kills” in French, which fit the narrative perfectly well because the shared images of Kojima showed him wearing Soviet-inspired clothing and posing beside photographs of Cuban Communist icon Che Guevara.
This led to even more confusion when a Greek TV station covering the news took Rieu's tweet as factual, reporting it on their online news coverage. Upon confirming the facts and realizing that they'd got the wrong person on their broadcast, the station quickly took down their video.
While the tragic death of the former prime minister is no joking matter, some people on the internet still found a way to joke around the situation, even involving someone who is entirely not involved in the tragedy. This led to misunderstanding, false claims, and misinformation. It goes without saying, but always take what you read on the internet with a grain of salt, and do not share anything ridiculous that has not been verified by experts. Thankfully it did not, but Kojima's sudden involvement in this situation could have taken a turn for the worse just because of a couple of jokes shared on the internet and unscrupulous people sharing unverified information and images as facts.
