Streisand effect

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The Streisand effect is an Internet phenomenon where an attempt to censor or remove a piece of information backfires, causing the information to be widely publicized. Examples of such attempts include censoring a photograph, a number, a file, or a website (for example via a cease-and-desist letter). Instead of being suppressed, the information quickly receives extensive publicity, often being widely mirrored across the Internet, or distributed on file-sharing networks.[1][2]

The effect is related to John Gilmore's observation that "The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it".[3]

Contents

[edit] Origin

Mike Masnick originally coined the term Streisand effect in reference to a 2003 incident where Barbra Streisand sued photographer Kenneth Adelman and Pictopia.com for US$50 million in an attempt to have the aerial photo of her house removed from the publicly available collection of 12,000 California coastline photographs, citing privacy concerns.[4][5][1] Adelman stated that he was photographing beachfront property to document coastal erosion as part of the California Coastal Records Project.[6] As a result of the case the picture became popular on the internet, with over 420,000 people visiting the site over the next month.[7]

[edit] Examples

  • The Church of Scientology's unsuccessful attempts to get Internet websites to delete a video of Tom Cruise speaking about Scientology resulted in the creation of Project Chanology.[8] The church's attempt to remove a series of OT document leaks from Wikileaks during early April 2008 prompted Wikileaks to respond by vowing to "release several thousand additional pages of Scientology material next week".[9]
  • On December 5, 2008, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) added the Wikipedia article Virgin Killer to a child pornography blacklist, considering the album's cover art "a potentially illegal indecent image of a child under the age of 18".[10] The article quickly became one of the most popular pages on the site,[11] and the publicity surrounding the censorship resulted in the image being spread across other sites.[12] The IWF were later reported on the BBC News website to have said "IWF's overriding objective is to minimise the availability of indecent images of children on the internet, however, on this occasion our efforts have had the opposite effect".[13] This effect was also noted by the IWF in their statement about the removal of the URL from the black list.[14][9]
  • Former UK Ambassador for Uzbekistan Craig Murray had his servers shut due to threats of legal action from Schillings, a high-powered London Law firm, hired by Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, after Murray blogged details about the billionaire's criminal history and previous incarceration for rape. After Murray was shut down, thousands of bloggers in the UK and other parts of the world carried Murray's article spreading the story even further marking Schillings and Usmanov as free speech thugs and bullies.[15]
  • An attempt at blocking an HD-DVD key from being published on Digg — "The online uproar came in response to a series of cease-and-desist letters […] demanding that the code be removed from several high-profile Web sites. Rather than wiping out the code, […] the letters led to its proliferation on Web sites, in chat rooms, inside cleverly doctored digital photographs and on user-submitted news sites. […] The ironic thing is, because they tried to quiet it down, it’s the most famous number on the Internet".[16] "[…] at this writing, about 283,000 pages contain the number […] There’s a song. Several domain names including variations of the number have been reserved".[17][18]
  • Bhumibol Adulyadej, the King of Thailand, was portrayed with feet superimposed over his head, an act extremely offensive to many Thai people, in a video posted by a YouTube user named "Padidda". "The Thai government charged the site with lèse majesté, insulting the monarch, and […] banned the site altogether. YouTube users around the world responded by posting a series of Bhumibol-bashing clips, some even more offensive than the originals […]. Each clip has been viewed tens of thousands of times".[18]
  • Video clips portraying paparazzi footage of Brazilian television personality Daniela Cicarelli having sex with her boyfriend on a beach in Spain were uploaded to YouTube. Court injunctions, which culminated in the blocking of YouTube in Brazil, proved unsuccessful in preventing the spread of the video, and only raised the ire of fans.[18]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Canton, David. "Today's Business Law: Attempt to suppress can backfire", London Free Press, November 5, 2005. Retrieved July 21, 2007. The "Streisand effect" is what happens when someone tries to suppress something and the opposite occurs. The act of suppressing it raises the profile, making it much more well known than it ever would have been".
  2. ^ Mugrabi, Sunshine. "YouTube—Censored? Offending Paula Abdul clips are abruptly taken down.[dead link], Red Herring (magazine), January 22, 2007. Retrieved July 21, 2007. "Another unintended consequence of this move could be that it extends the kerfuffle over Ms. Abdul’s behavior rather than quelling it. Mr. Nguyen called this the "Barbra Streisand effect", referring to that actress’s insistence that paparazzi photos of her mansion not be used".
  3. ^ "Censorship, Internet two feisty opponents". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. June 29 2008. http://www.ajc.com/braves/content/opinion/stories/2008/06/29/streisand.html?cxntlid=inform_sr. Retrieved on 2009-03-23. 
  4. ^ Josh Bernoff; Charlene Li (2008). Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. Boston, Mass: Harvard Business School Press. pp. 7. ISBN 1-4221-2500-9. 
  5. ^ Since When Is It Illegal to Just Mention a Trademark Online?, techdirt.com
  6. ^ The Smoking Gun
  7. ^ Rogers, Paul (2003-06-24). "Photo of Streisand home becomes an Internet hit". San Jose Mercury News, mirrored at californiacoastline.org. http://www.californiacoastline.org/news/sjmerc5.html. Retrieved on 2007-06-15. 
  8. ^ Mathew Ingram (January 19, 2008). "Scientology vs. the Internet, part XVII". The Globe & Mail. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080118.WBmingram20080118144345/WBStory/WBmingram. Retrieved on 2008-01-19. 
  9. ^ a b "Living with the Streisand Effect". International Herald Tribune. 2008-12-26. http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/12/26/opinion/edmorozov.php. Retrieved on 2008-12-29. 
  10. ^ Schofield, Jack (8 December 2008). "Wikipedia page censored in the UK for 'child pornography'". The Guardian (Guardian Media Group). http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2008/dec/08/internet. Retrieved on 9 December 2008. 
  11. ^ Cade Metz (December 7, 2008). "Brit ISPs censor Wikipedia over 'child porn' album cover". The Register. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/07/brit_isps_censor_wikipedia/. Retrieved on 2008-12-09. 
  12. ^ Moses, Asher (December 8, 2008). "Wikipedia added to child pornography blacklist". Sydney Morning Herald. http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/web/wikipedia-added-to-child-pornography-blacklist/2008/12/08/1228584723764.html. Retrieved on 2008-12-09. 
  13. ^ "IWF backs down on Wiki censorship". BBC News Online. December 9, 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7774102.stm. Retrieved on 2008-12-09. 
  14. ^ "IWF statement regarding Wikipedia webpage". Internet Watch Foundation. December 9, 2008. http://www.iwf.org.uk/media/news.archive-2008.251.htm. Retrieved on 2008-12-09. 
  15. ^ Craig Murray (24 September 2007). "Alisher Usmanov is a Vicious Thug, Criminal, Racketeer, Heroin Trafficker". Atlantic Free Press. http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/2474-alisher-usmanov-is-a-vicious-thug-criminal-racketeer-heroin-trafficker.html. Retrieved on 2009-03-22. 
  16. ^ Brad Stone (May 3, 2007). "How a Number Became the Latest Web Celebrity.". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/03/technology/03code.html?_r=1&oref=slogin. Retrieved on 2008-02-29. "Sophisticated Internet users have banded together over the last two days to publish and widely distribute a secret code used by the technology and movie industries to prevent piracy of high-definition movies." 
  17. ^ kdawson (May 1, 2007). "Digg.com Attempts To Suppress HD-DVD Revolt". http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/07/05/02/0235228.shtml. Retrieved on 2007-05-01. 
  18. ^ a b c Andy Greenberg (May 11, 2007). "The Streisand Effect". Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/home/technology/2007/05/10/streisand-digg-web-tech-cx_ag_0511streisand.html. Retrieved on 2008-02-29. "The phenomenon takes its name from Barbra Streisand, who made her own ill-fated attempt at reining in the Web in 2003. That's when environmental activist Kenneth Adelman posted aerial photos of Streisand's Malibu beach house on his Web site as part of an environmental survey, and she responded by suing him for $50 million. Until the lawsuit, few people had spotted Streisand's house, Adelman says--but the lawsuit brought more than a million visitors to Adelman's Web site, he estimates. Streisand's case was dismissed, and Adelman's photo was picked up by the Associated Press and reprinted in newspapers around the world." 

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