Buzz
A French politician and two news outlets in Iran and Greece wrongly used images of Hideo Kojima, alleging him as the assassin of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
In reality, Hideo Kojima has no connection to the assassination that occurred on July 8th. He is a renowned video game producer, known for titles like Death Stranding and Metal Gear Solid, according to VICE.
The first mistake began spreading after French politician Damien Rieu used Kojima's image to respond to a post by another politician on social media.
Furthermore, Rieu reshared a post from someone else implying the game producer is a murderer. Although Rieu has since deleted the post, many have already captured screenshots and shared them widely.
This type of confusion is quite common on the internet, where rumors of violence and tragedy spread rapidly. However, at least two news outlets have published this misleading information.
In Iran, Mashregh News mistakenly published an image of Mr. Kojima, implying he was the assassin of the former Japanese Prime Minister. They later corrected the information after numerous comments pointed out this error.
A video uploaded by Greece's ANT1 news agency also made a similar mistake by using an image of the video game producer.
The agency deleted the video, but copies still exist and continue to circulate on the internet.
The actual perpetrator is 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami, who was arrested by the police at the crime scene. NHK reported that Yamagami was a member of the Japanese Coast Guard from 2002-2005.
Shinzo Abe, a figure surpassing a former prime minister in influence, was assassinated at the age of 67 on July 8th. He passed away in a hospital in Nara prefecture after being shot twice in the left chest and right neck.
