History Main / StreisandEffect

A form of RevealingCoverup. Sometimes related to ClumsyCopyrightCensorship.

* [[OlderThanSteam In 1559]], the Pope issued the "Index of Prohibited Books", which virtually became a list of must-read books for Protestant intellectuals.
** This doesn't count because they were ''Protestants''. Protestants at that time tended to live under governments that were officially Protestant, so they were ''expected'' to stick it to the Pope. Now, if it had been ''Catholics'' reading the books (which it actually was in some cases), ''then'' it would have been this trope.
** Still fairly common in schools, at least at a more high-school level: "read, and do a book report on, a book that has been banned somewhere."

This has come to be known as the Streisand Effect; blogger Mike Masnick of Techdirt coined the phrase in response to the trope namer, Barbra Streisand, whose attempt to sue a photographer for taking a picture of her house shown at the left (and to have the photo taken down from his website) led to more people learning about the existence of the photo and quickly mirroring the photo on multiple websites as a TakeThat to Streisand. This is traditionally an Internet-based Trope, since the spread of information is much faster and easier across the 'Net than through other means.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Barbrahouse1_5204.png

** Days later, Ralph Lauren apologized -- for ''the horrible Photoshop'', not the DMCA takedown notice. (Though this was NOT just a case of CompletelyMissingThePoint; the photoshop was being attacked as a new low in promoting unhealthily warped body images to children, not just for its artistic deficiencies).

** Days later, Ralph Lauren apologized -- for ''the horrible Photoshop'', not the DMCA takedown notice.

* The MPAA encountered this in 2007; it attempted to stop popular social aggregator Digg from allowing an encryption key to the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray formats from being posted with a DMCA takedown. When the takedown attempt became public knowledge, hundreds of stories containing the key were submitted to Digg, and dozens of other websites mirrored the key in defiance of the censorship.

* Wikileaks. The US government felt huge concern when Wikileaks stated that they would leak something very big. Much to their fear, they leaked 250,000 cables, pissing them off enough to not only rant about them, but arrest and wish for the assassination of [[WhiteHairedPrettyBoy Julian Assenge]], founder of the website. Needless to say, more people have heard about it.

* The Church of {{Scientology}} ran afoul of the effect in 2008, and probably wishes they could turn back time and take it all back: their DMCA takedown of a video on {{YouTube}} of TomCruise talking about Scientology resulted in the eventual creation of Project Chanology, the ongoing Internet-based crusade to have the Church's status as a religion revoked and to bring to light the various wrongdoings of the Church. Similarly, ''after'' Chanology's creation, attempts by Scientology to have specific documents about the Church and the religion itself erased from the Internet have failed miserably, with mirrors popping up almost as soon as a takedown attempt is issued.

* For lovers of exploitation films, the old list of "Video Nasties" put together by the British government makes a great place to start.

Something horribly embarrassing or personal about you is released -- perhaps a sex tape, or a rather embarrassing photograph -- and you want that information locked back up. So you do whatever it takes to make the information go away: lawsuits, cease-and-desists, DMCA takedowns, whatever you have at hand. But instead of the information remaining obscure, the information becomes more widely known as the efforts to censor it become public. The information gets mirrored and copies and spread at a much faster rate than before the censorship attempt, often to the dismay and frustration of those trying to prevent it.

This has come to be known as the Streisand Effect; blogger Mike Masnick of Techdirt coined the phrase in response to the trope namer, BarbraStreisand, whose attempt to sue a photographer for taking a picture of her house shown at the left (and to have the photo taken down from his website) led to more people learning about the existence of the photo and quickly mirroring the photo on multiple websites as a TakeThat to Streisand. This is traditionally an Internet-based Trope, since the spread of information is much faster and easier across the 'Net than through other means.

* The NostalgiaCritic's review of TheRoom got taken down soon after it was posted when the creator of the film called copyright infringement for using clips of the film. As a result, it became one of the most sought-after NC reviews. (it was still available on Youtube)

* Tommy Wiseau (or a BigNameFan acting in his name) sent the video host TheNostalgiaCritic uses a complaint about his review of ''TheRoom'', forcing them to remove it. This appears to have been a mistake, as ''TheRoom'' had a very small [=~So Bad It's Good~=]/NarmCharm [[CultClassic cult following]]... until the much larger fanbase of ThatGuyWithTheGlasses [[InternetBacklash found out]] about the legal "attack" on [[ThatGuyWithTheGlasses TGWTG.com]]... It doesn't help that TheNostalgiaCritic did a rather epic TakeThat against the BigNameFan ''by name'' in the form of a ''very'' long, scathing parody sketch.

This has come to be known as the Streisand Effect; blogger Mike Masnick of Techdirt coined the phrase in response to the trope namer, BarbraStreisand, whose attempt to sue a photographer for taking a picture of her house shown above (and to have the photo taken down from his website) led to more people learning about the existence of the photo and quickly mirroring the photo on multiple websites as a TakeThat to Streisand. This is traditionally an Internet-based Trope, since the spread of information is much faster and easier across the 'Net than through other means.

This has come to be known as the Streisand Effect; blogger Mike Masnick of Techdirt coined the phrase in response to the trope namer, BarbraStreisand, whose attempt to sue a photographer for taking a picture of her house (and to have the photo taken down from his website) led to more people learning about the existence of the photo and quickly mirroring the photo on multiple websites as a TakeThat to Streisand. This is traditionally an Internet-based Trope, since the spread of information is much faster and easier across the 'Net than through other means.

* Wikileaks. Enough said.

* Tommy Wiseau (or a BigNameFan acting in his name) sent the video host TheNostalgiaCritic uses a complaint about his review of ''TheRoom'', forcing them to remove it. This appears to have been a mistake, as ''TheRoom'' had a very small [=~So Bad It's Good~=]/NarmCharm [[CultClassic cult following]]... until the much larger fanbase of ThatGuyWithTheGlasses [[InternetBacklash found out]] about the legal "attack" on [[ThatGuyWithTheGlasses TGWTG.com]]... It doesn't help that TheNostalgiaCritic did a rather epic TakeThat against the BigNameFan ''by name ''in the form of a ''very'' long, scathing parody sketch.

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Something horribly embarassing or personal about you is released - perhaps a sex tape, or a rather embarassing photograph - and you want that information locked back up. So you do whatever it takes to make the information go away: lawsuits, cease-and-desists, DMCA takedowns, whatever you have at hand. But instead of the information remaining obscure, the information becomes more widely known as the efforts to censor it become public. The information gets mirrored and copies and spread at a much faster rate than before the censorship attempt, often to the dismay and frustration of those trying to prevent it.

This has come to be known as the Streisand Effect; blogger Mike Masnick of Techdirt coined the phrase in response to the trope namer, Barbra Streisand, whose attempt to sue a photographer for taking a picture of her house (and to have the photo taken down from his website) led to more people learning about the existence of the photo and quickly mirroring the photo on multiple websites as a TakeThat to Streisand. This is traditionally an Internet-based Trope, since the spread of information is much faster and easier across the 'Net than through other means.

Psychologists have done studies and found that the subjects' desire for any kind of potentially censorable material increased when the subjects were told that it was censored. The old ForbiddenFruit principle in action, in other words. Perhaps any authority considering the use of censorship should worry that this move might be counteproductive if it just gets people interested in the censored material.

* A rare fictional example: In ''HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'', Hermione is delighted when Umbridge threatens to expel anyone caught with a copy of Harry's Quibbler interview, because of course that guarantees that everyone will find a way to get their hands on it.

[[AC:{{Web Comics}}]]

[[AC:{{Web Original}}]]

* The Church of {{Scientology}} ran afoul of the effect in 2008, and probably wishes they could turn back time and take it all back: their DMCA takedown of a video on {{YouTube}} of Tom Cruise talking about Scientology resulted in the eventual creation of Project Chanology, the ongoing Internet-based crusade to have the Church's status as a religion revoked and to bring to light the various wrongdoings of the Church. Similarly, ''after'' Chanology's creation, attempts by Scientology to have specific documents about the Church and the religion itself erased from the Internet have failed miserably, with mirrors popping up almost as soon as a takedown attempt is issued.

* Tommy Wiseau (or a BigNameFan acting in his name) sent the video host TheNostalgiaCritic uses a complaint about his review of ''TheRoom'', forcing them to remove it. This appears to have been a mistake, as ''TheRoom'' had a very small SoBadItsGood / NarmCharm [[CultClassic cult following]]... until the much larger fanbase of ThatGuyWithTheGlasses [[InternetBacklash found out]] about the legal "attack" on [[ThatGuyWithTheGlasses TGWTG.com]]... It doesn't help that TheNostalgiaCritic did a rather epic TakeThat against the BigNameFan ''by name ''in the form of a ''very'' long, scathing parody sketch.

<<|CensorshipTropes|>>

Sometimes related to ClumsyCopyrightCensorship.

!Examples include:

* The MPAA encountered this in 2007; it attempted to stop popular social aggregator Digg from allowing an encryption key to the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray formats from being posted with a DMCA takedown. When the takedown attempt became public knowledge, hundreds of stories containing the key were submitted to Digg, and dozens of other websites mirrored the key in defiance of the censorship.
* The Church of {{Scientology}} ran afoul of the effect in 2008, and probably wishes they could turn back time and take it all back: their DMCA takedown of a video on {{YouTube}} of Tom Cruise talking about Scientology resulted in the eventual creation of Project Chanology, the ongoing Internet-based crusade to have the Church's status as a religion revoked and to bring to light the various wrongdoings of the Church. Similarly, ''after'' Chanology's creation, attempts by Scientology to have specific documents about the Church and the religion itself erased from the Internet have failed miserably, with mirrors popping up almost as soon as a takedown attempt is issued.
* In 2009, an advertisement from fashion company Ralph Lauren was posted on the blog "Photoshop Disasters" and tech news website Boing Boing because of the excessively thin appearance of the model in the ad. Ralph Lauren sent a DMCA takedown notice to both Blogspot (the host of "Photoshop Disasters") and Boing Boing; while Blogspot removed the post, Boing Boing refused on the grounds of Fair Use and publicly mocked the takedown notice in a satirical rebuttal. From there, the story picked up steam and was talked about on hundreds of other websites and blogs - each one mirroring the ad in question.
** Days later, Ralph Lauren apologized -- for ''the horrible Photoshop'', not the DMCA takedown notice.

* A rare fictional example: In ''HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'', Hermione is delighted when Umbridge threatens to expel anyone caught with a copy of Harry's Quibbler interview, because of course that guarantees that everyone will find a way to get their hands on it.

<<|CensorshipTropes|>>