What IS the "Streisand Effect" ?
https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/@lauren/109535928546138129
Greetings. We're now seeing many references to the "Streisand Effect"
in relation to Musk's ranting about his private jet's location data.
Most of you probably know that this term refers broadly to attempts to
suppress information that have the reverse effect of actually drawing
more attention to them.
Elon's behavior regarding his jet is a quintessential example of this,
having the effect of making his jet's movements now known to orders of
magnitude more people than before he went ballistic on the topic, as
he made it a global news story with threats, suspensions of #Twitter
users (including mainstream reporters who even mentioned the jet
issue), and continuing blocking of #Mastodon links.
What I've recently realized though is that many folks don't know the
etymology of the term. Why is it called the "Streisand Effect"?
In fact, this does indeed refer to the famous actress/singer Barbra
Streisand! About two decades ago, her legal team attempted to suppress
a photograph of her Malibu coastal home showing cliffside erosion (one
of about 12,000 coastal photographs taken by the California Coastal
Records Project).
She lost the case, and the resulting publicity caused the photo in
question, which up to that moment had reportedly only been viewed six
times (including twice by her attorneys) to be viewed hundreds of
thousands of times more in the following month!
The term "Streisand Effect" to label this kind of situation was coined
by the venerable Mike Masnick (@mmasnick) of "Techdirt" a couple of
years later.
So now you know! Best, -L
- - -
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
[email protected] (https://www.vortex.com/lauren)
Lauren's Blog: https://lauren.vortex.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
Mastodon: https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/@lauren
Founder: Network Neutrality Squad: https://www.nnsquad.org
PRIVACY Forum: https://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
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