verb
Streisand
STREYE-sand
verb
1
To try to hide or suppress information online, only to draw far more attention to it than it would have gotten otherwise.
"The company's lawyers tried to get the leaked memo taken down, but they ended up streisanding it — now it's everywhere."
"Threatening to sue the blogger just streisanded the story onto every major news site."
How to Use Streisand
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishTrying to hush something up and accidentally making it go viral instead.
Memory tip
Always used about the backfire effect itself, not about Barbra Streisand the person.
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Common pairings
streisand a story
the Streisand effect
Word Forms
Streisanded past tense, Streisands singular
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The company's lawyers tried to get the leaked memo taken down, but they ended up _____ it — now it's everywhere.
Etymology
Named after singer Barbra Streisand, whose 2003 lawsuit to remove a photo of her house from the internet backfired spectacularly and made the photo famous.