The British Civil Service Understood The Streisand Effect Seventy Years Ago

Miscellaneous

from the and-so-they-did dept

Y Pennog Coch writes “Seeing how much you like to cover the Streisand Effect, I thought you might be as amused as I am, that while so many Internet-era companies don’t get it, the British civil service completely understood back in the 1930’s: “And if the object of suppression is to prevent women getting to know that these practices exist and adopting them, then I think there is no doubt whatever that the object would be defeated by prosecution and its attendant publicity.” Perhaps they simply have more experience in cover-ups.” The Streisand Effect, for those who don’t know, is what happens when some entity tries to suppress something, and the opposite occurs: the act of suppressing it gives it attention making it much more well known than it ever would have been without the suppression attempt. It was something we jokingly named The Streisand Effect after a photo that no one cared about of Barbara Streisand’s house became a huge internet hit after she demanded it be taken offline. The reason behind the British Civil Service decision is a bit pathetic, but still amusing, considering how few companies (well, mainly lawyers) seem to grasp the impact of the Streisand Effect in an internet-enabled world.