What is The Streisand Effect and why is it named after the actress?

The story dates back to March 2003. Barbra Streisand started a multimillionaire lawsuit which seemed easy to win, but it totally backfired on the artist.

The artist sued amateur photographer Kenneth Adelman for the alleged violation of her privacy.

The photographer had a website where he documented the erosion and housing development of California's coastline.

Image: Tom Briskey / Unsplash

There was one picture uploaded to the photographer's website in which you could see the Malibu mansion of Barbra Streisand. That picture totally infuriated the singer.

Barbra Streisand took the case to the California court and sued Kenneth Adelman for invasion of privacy.

It wasn't a minor issue. According to the LA Times, the artist demanded the photographer for 10 million dollars in damages.

But destiny and a judge, Allan J. Goodman, were the keys to changing the case.

The lawsuit was dismissed, and justice obliged Barbra Streisand to cover Kenneth Adelman's costs resulting from the legal procedure.

In the end, the actress and singer not only failed to receive the money she was asking for, but she had to pay 177,000 dollars to the photographer plus their lawyer's fees.

Money wasn't the worst part of the story… The events went viral, and it wasn't even the high time of social media yet.

The interest to see Barbra Streisand's mansion doubled thanks to the case. People from around the world visited Kenneth Adelman's website.

Image: Allison Huang / Unsplash

According to the BBC, Kenneth Adelman's page registered 420,000 visits just in the month of April 2003. An insane number for an amateur website at the time.

Those who were visiting the area photographed on his website considered Streisand's mansion a must-see touristic landmark.

Image: Julian Myles / Unsplash

It would have been much better for Streisand to just ignore the publication. Her picture was part of a series with more than 12.000 more images!

This means that if the actress hadn't paid attention to it, nobody would have even noticed.

Her lawsuit not only failed, but it completely backfired. The fact that everyone started to pay attention to the one thing she didn't want them to see is now described as the Streisand Effect.

As explained by the BBC, The Streisand Effect is "the act of trying to suppress information but simply making it more widespread as a result." Well done, Barbra!