The thing that made this prank a news story was its context: acid attacks, an alarming crime that tripled in frequency in Britain from 2014 to 2017. In a real acid attack, the attacker will approach a victim and throw liquid in their face. Mosallah didn't say in his video that he was trying to trick people into thinking they were a victim of such an attack. His video doesn't mention them at all. And, yet, his prank was nearly identical. The only difference was that the liquid in his cup was harmless.
Whether Mosallah had this context in mind or not, the video clearly evoked the growing fear of acid attacks. At best, Mosallah was accosting strangers with an annoying prank for clicks. Turn the kaleidoscope and you'll see something else: British courts determined, in another case, that throwing water on someone can be an assault. Earlier this year, someone threw water in the face of two Muslim women standing outside a mosque in an apparent fake acid attack.
Watch the video here:
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