I don't really agree with the value gained from not naming alleged criminals, it seems like a trivialization of a complex issue.
After the last few news cycles around mass shootings, I started wondering what someone in tech could do to help, even just a little, as most of the solutions being suggested were on the policy side. It's tough to feel helpless.
Many organizations (including the National Issues Forums [1]) mentioned reducing the mention of shootings in the media to lower the notoriety of gunmen. Figured this could be a fairly simple way to help that cause.
[1] https://www.nifi.org/sites/default/files/product-downloads/m...
It's not just murders. Australian media will often not report suicides to prevent triggering copycats.
The potential mass murders have no way to know that you won't see their name. This would have to become a viral phenomenon and be reported on extensively to even possibly have any effect beyond making you feel better. I severely doubt this plugin could ever have a material effect on the number of people who read the names.
This also does nothing to punish those news organizations that do publish names and faces for mass murderers and since the people who care about this won't know who does and doesn't, it actually reduces the incentive for news organization to not publish names for faces.
Want to make a plugin that has an effect? Make a plugin that blacklists any news site that publishes names/faces so that when you try to read ANY article from those sites, the plugin instead finds similar articles from non-blacklisted publishers and displays links to those instead.
I also believe that the media has the onus to report things correctly, in full. As a national or international spectator, it may not be important whom commits these crimes. I was recently living in Seattle when a shooting happened at Seattle Pacific University. My girlfriend at the time was on campus when the shooting started and the media frenzy was actually beneficial for the community.