[News Terms] The 'Streisand Effect': Trying to Block It Only Makes It Spread More

The 'Streisand effect' refers to the phenomenon where attempts to hide or delete information exposed online or elsewhere backfire, resulting in even greater public attention and the spread of the information.

In 2002, the famous American singer and actress Barbra Streisand filed a $50 million lawsuit against photographer Kenneth Adelman and the website Pictopia.com. The reason was that a photo of the California Malibu coast, taken and published with the support of the California state government, included her mansion, which she claimed invaded her privacy.

Park Bo-gyun, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, is receiving questions from Im Oh-kyung, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, regarding the award-winning work "Yoon Seok-yeol Car" at the Bucheon International Comics Festival during the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee audit held in October last year.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

However, before the lawsuit, the photo had only been viewed six times (two of which were by Streisand's lawyer). After news of the lawsuit broke, it attracted explosive public interest and recorded an enormous 420,000 views. The attempt to prevent privacy exposure ironically ended up promoting it, resulting in a backfire.

There are countless examples of the Streisand effect. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's 'The Sorrows of Young Werther' became more famous after the Vatican designated it as a banned book, leading to numerous pirated editions. The 'Charlie Hebdo terror attack,' which transformed the once obscure French tabloid Charlie Hebdo into a globally recognized news outlet, can also be considered a Streisand effect.

In South Korea, recent reports that the police launched an investigation into 'Nunu TV,' a site illegally distributing video content such as 'The Glory' and 'I Am God,' led to an increase in users who said, "I'll watch everything before it gets blocked." Other representative cases include the controversy over the 'Yoon Seok-yeol Car' cartoon, which won the gold prize at last year's Bucheon International Comics Festival National Student Comics Contest; the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's request to remove singer Irang's song 'A Wolf Has Appeared' from the Buma Uprising Memorial Foundation ceremony; and the phenomenon of MBC achieving the highest viewership ratings amid conflicts between the Presidential Office and MBC.