What Is Streisand Effect?

It's not just the weather that's hot and humid this summer. The Streisand Effect is in full force, bringing to light some of the biggest secrets of our time. What is the Streisand Effect? It's when someone tries to hide something but makes it more public, thanks to the easy access to information provided by today's high-tech systems. Concealing information has become more complicated because it can be quickly spread via social media and other networks. This has led to an increase in the information available to the general public and a change in the type of information people are exposed to. The abundance of data and ease of sharing on social media have enabled people to form communities around shared interests. These communities often reinforce pre-existing beliefs and create an online culture separate from most people on social media. The Internet has made it easier for people to avoid information conflicts with their ideas. This has further polarized people in real-life interactions and on social media. So who is responsible for making all these secrets so public? Well, according to legend and now documented evidence, it was Barbara Streisand herself who accidentally made these secrets available for all to see with her attempts at censorship through litigation against a photographer who posted an aerial photograph of her house on his website (for which he had permission from the California Coastal Records Project). Kenneth Adelman took a photo of Streisand's Malibu estate from above, showing her house, its beachfront property, and its surrounding landscape. He then posted this image on his website. Streisand sued Adelman and his company for $50 million after refusing to remove the photo from their site. The case went up to the Supreme Court before being dismissed because of a lack of standing (Streisand's failure to prove damages). During this period, many uploaded copies of the image onto other websites, creating massive traffic for Adelman's site and causing many more people to see it.