Meme of the Day: The Streisand Effect

1. Definition:

The Streisand Effect (from Wikipedia): an attempt to hide or remove a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely.

Named after uber-yenta Barbra Streisand, after she kvetched her way to try to hide paparazzi pictures of her Malibu Mansion, prompting everyone on earth to mirror the pictures on the intarwebs, "Oy, gevalt!", so everyone can see it.

2. Current Example:

U.S. Congressman Sean Duffy (R-WI), trying to take down the full YouTube video of him telling constituents that he can barely get by with $174,000 a year as a congressman. Excerpts still exist online, with some intrepid users furiously mirroring the video to preserve it:



I love the satire that inevitably follows any foot-in-mouth situation, and this is my favorite:

 

Lesson learned: in this day of Facebook and the twattering masses, don't try to cover anything up if you don't want any more attention drawn to it.