Don't show everything. Leave a question mark. The face covered by a hood or a blur isn't a mistake—it's an invitation. The internet will write the story for you.

Consider the infamous case of the "Boston Marathon Bomber" misidentification. While that face was not covered, the principle applies: when users can’t identify the real culprit, they will invent one. In recent cases, innocent people have had their lives destroyed because they owned the same jacket or shoes as the masked figure in the video.

The video, which was uploaded to YouTube and other social media sites, appears to show [insert details of the incident]. The clip has been widely shared and discussed, with many viewers expressing their outrage and concern.

A 45-second video showing a person in a hoodie and face mask vandalizing a public monument went viral (120M views). Simultaneously, a separate video of the same clothing but a different individual—a volunteer feeding the homeless—also spread. Social media merged the two, leading to a misidentification mob. The face-covering made it impossible to distinguish them. Both individuals received death threats. The discussion afterwards centered on “visual anonymity as a weapon of false equivalence.”