60 Celebrity Moves That Backfired Spectacularly And Might Change How You See Them

The legendary Streisand Effect basically refers to the fact that hiding information makes it more popular, instead, because it attracts more attention and curiosity. The antidote to it is openness and honesty, if there’s a genuine problem you’re trying to tackle.

The term itself was coined in 2005 by Techdirt founder Mike Masnick and was the result of singer and actress Barbra Streisand suing photographer Kenneth Adelman for a whopping $50 million back in 2003. Adelman had taken photos for the California Coastal Records Project, one of which accidentally featured Streisand’s mansion in Malibu.

At that point, the image had been downloaded a mere 6 times. Later, it got over a million views and was reprinted many times. Meanwhile, Streisand lost the lawsuit. Though Streisand had had bad experiences with being stalked, in this particular case, it would have been better for her if she hadn’t escalated things.