In 2003, photographer Kenneth Adelman was documenting coastal erosion in California. He took 12,000 aerial photographs of the coastline for the California Coastal Records Project.
One of those photos happened to capture Barbra Streisand’s Malibu mansion.
The photo had been downloaded exactly six times. Two of those downloads were by Streisand’s lawyers.
Then Streisand sued Adelman for $50 million, demanding the photo be removed from the public website.
The Backfire
The lawsuit made headlines. Suddenly, everyone wanted to see the photo that Barbra Streisand was trying to hide.
Within a month, over 420,000 people visited the website to view the image.
Major news outlets covered the story. The photo spread across the internet. What Streisand tried to suppress became one of the most viewed images in the collection.
Her attempt to hide the photo made it famous.
This phenomenon now bears her name: The Streisand Effect.
What Is the Streisand Effect?
The Streisand Effect occurs when an attempt to hide, remove, or censor information actually causes it to become more widely publicized.
The harder you try to suppress something, the more attention it receives.
Classic Examples
1. The Wikileaks Banking Blockade (2010)
- Major payment processors blocked donations to WikiLeaks
- Result: Massive publicity, increased donations via Bitcoin, WikiLeaks became even more famous
2. The Spinal Tap Review Deletion (2012)
- Band tried to remove a negative review from a music website
- Result: The review went viral, got way more attention than it would have otherwise
3. Beyoncé’s “Unflattering” Super Bowl Photos (2013)
- Beyoncé’s publicist asked BuzzFeed to remove “unflattering” performance photos
- Result: The photos became memes, spreading everywhere
4. The EU “Right to Be Forgotten” (2014-Present)
- Google forced to remove search results about individuals
- Result: Media reports exactly what was removed, creating permanent public record
5. Turkish Government’s Twitter Ban (2014)
- Turkey blocked Twitter to suppress corruption allegations
- Result: Twitter usage in Turkey surged, people found workarounds, allegations spread further
Why It Happens
The Streisand Effect occurs because:
1. Censorship Creates Curiosity
When you tell people they can’t see something, they want to see it even more.
2. Censorship Signals Importance
If someone is trying this hard to hide it, it must be important or embarrassing.
3. The Internet Doesn’t Forget
Once something is online, it’s nearly impossible to completely erase. Attempting to do so just draws attention.
4. People Hate Censorship
There’s a natural rebellious streak—people share censored content because it’s being censored.
5. Media Loves the Irony
“Attempt to hide X makes X go viral” is an irresistible story.
In Tech and Software
The Streisand Effect appears constantly in technology:
GitHub DMCA Takedowns
Company issues DMCA to remove source code
Community mirrors the repo hundreds of times
Code spreads further than it would have naturally
App Store Rejections
App gets rejected for controversial features
Rejection makes headlines
App becomes famous, gets approved after public pressure
Security Through Obscurity
Company tries to hide security flaw instead of fixing it
Hackers get curious, probe harder
Flaw gets exploited and publicized
Content Moderation Drama
Platform bans controversial content
Users create memes about the ban
The banned content goes viral across other platforms
Real-World Tech Examples
YouTube-DL Takedown (2020)
The RIAA issued a DMCA takedown for youtube-dl, a popular video downloading tool, claiming it circumvented YouTube’s protections.
Result:
- The repo was cloned thousands of times
- Major developers protested
- GitHub eventually restored it
youtube-dlbecame more famous than ever
Sony vs. George Hotz (2011)
Sony sued hacker George Hotz for jailbreaking the PlayStation 3.
Result:
- Anonymous retaliated with DDoS attacks
- Jailbreaking methods spread everywhere
- More people jailbroke PS3s than before the lawsuit
HP Printer Firmware Update (2016)
HP pushed a firmware update blocking third-party ink cartridges.
Result:
- Massive backlash and publicity
- HP forced to reverse the update
- Their anti-consumer practices became widely known
How to Avoid the Streisand Effect
1. Ask: Is This Worth Fighting?
Will fighting this draw more attention than ignoring it?
Sometimes the best response is no response.
2. Consider the Reverse Effect
What if your suppression effort makes it 100x more visible?
3. Address, Don’t Suppress
If something damaging is true, address it directly rather than trying to hide it.
4. Pick Your Battles
Minor slights, small leaks, and individual critics often aren’t worth the attention you’d give them by responding.
5. Understand Internet Culture
The internet has a deep-seated aversion to censorship. Trying to suppress content often triggers mass sharing.
The Programmer’s Perspective
As developers, we see this pattern in multiple domains:
Code Review Comments
- Trying to delete or hide critical feedback often makes it a bigger issue
- Better to address the concern directly
Bug Reports
- Closing valid bug reports as “won’t fix” can backfire
- Users will create more noise if they feel ignored
Open Source Conflicts
- Trying to suppress project forks or community criticism
- Often amplifies the controversy
Security Vulnerabilities
- Threatening researchers instead of fixing issues
- Guarantees the flaw gets maximum publicity
The Deeper Pattern
The Streisand Effect reveals a fundamental truth about information in the digital age:
Control is an illusion.
You cannot put information back in the bottle. The internet is a copying machine—trying to delete something just creates more copies.
The more you fight to suppress information, the more valuable and interesting it becomes.
What Streisand Should Have Done
If she had simply ignored the photo:
- It would have remained one of 12,000 unremarkable coastal images
- Almost no one would have seen it
- It would have been lost to obscurity
Instead, her lawsuit:
- Made it front-page news
- Turned it into a cultural reference point
- Ensured it will be remembered forever
The cover-up was worse than the crime—because the “crime” was nothing.
Key Takeaways
- ✅ Attempting to censor information can amplify it
- ✅ The internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it
- ✅ Sometimes the best response is no response
- ✅ Consider whether fighting something will make it worse
- ✅ Transparency often works better than suppression
Barbra Streisand didn’t create the Streisand Effect—she just gave it a name.
The phenomenon exists because of fundamental human psychology: we want what we’re told we can’t have.
Before you try to suppress, censor, or hide something online, ask yourself:
“Am I about to make this infinitely worse?”
Because if Barbra Streisand’s lawyers couldn’t keep a single photo private, what chance do you have?