This is a list of notable incidents that have experienced a Streisand effect, an unintended consequence of attempts to hide, remove, or censor information, where the effort instead backfires by increasing public awareness of the information. This list includes only instances explicitly identified by the media or other sources as examples of the Streisand effect.
In politics and government
Argentina In November 2024, an attempt led by Vice President Victoria Villarruel to ban certain books from schools for being "degrading and immoral" led to one such book, Cometierra, becoming a bestseller.
Australia In March 2022, incumbent Australian federal MP Tim Wilson, in what had previously been considered to be the safe seat of Goldstein, drew national attention to his independent challenger Zoe Daniel when he made legal objections to posting of campaign signs by volunteers on the fences of private residences. This also led to a significant increase in donations to the Daniel campaign. In December 2024, Rachael Gunn, Australia's Olympic breakdancer, attempted to legally suppress a comedy musical about her performance. Her legal threats were worked into a revised version of the show, which then played to larger audiences.
Canada In December 2023, the Canadian Armed Forces at CFB Kingston sent a base-wide email addressing a sex worker advertising on base. The worker, who was essentially unknown to most soldiers at the time, became instantly recognizable as the email effectively advertised the woman and her services to the entire base. This situation was compounded after the story appeared in a number of national news outlets.
China A 2018 study of millions of individual responses of Chinese social media users found that sudden censorship of information by the Chinese government and its affiliates often led to mass backlashes, including newfound popularity of virtual private networks and the subsequent reviewing of entire topic lists on which censored subjects appear. Other researchers found that the backlash tended to result in permanent changes to political attitudes and behaviors. In August 2020, it was reported that the Chinese government had blanked out parts of Baidu's mapping platform, and that this could be used to find a network of buildings bearing hallmarks of prisons and internment camps in Xinjiang. On June 3, 2022, Chinese e-commerce livestreamer Li Jiaqi was interrupted for showing a tank-shaped ice cream cake in a livestream and failed to show up for the next scheduled show. This sudden suspension drew more attention to the sensitivity of the tank symbol on the eve of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre; the interruption paradoxically triggered widespread online discussion and searches regarding "June 4th", increasing awareness of the suppressed history. In January 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in China, the Jyllands-Posten newspaper received international attention when it published a cartoon depicting the Chinese flag with yellow virus-like figures instead of the usual yellow stars. The illustrator received numerous threats, and social media platforms were flooded by illustrations of the Danish flag that had been edited to included feces, texts like alle jeres familier døde ("all your families are dead") and similar mockery in what experts regarded as a coordinated action, much of it spread by newly started profiles that appeared to be automated. The Chinese embassy in Denmark demanded an official apology from Jyllands-Posten. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen refused to apologize on behalf of the Danish government, declaring that there is freedom of speech in Denmark. Other Danish newspapers, although some of them regarded the illustration as impolite, supported Jyllands-Posten, noting that Danish newspapers operate under Danish law, not based on intimidation from a non-democratic country, and also pointed out that few would have seen the illustration if not for the actions of the Chinese embassy. When Hong Kong's secretary for justice filed an injunction to bar the distribution of pro-democracy protest song Glory to Hong Kong with the intention to incite secession, sedition, or to violate the national anthem law, Senior Counsel Abraham Chan said the government's injunction application "would bring about an own goal" by amplifying that which it sought to prohibit. Chan cited "empirical evidence" that after the government announced that it would apply for a ban, "the level of engagement with the song increased". When Liu Xiaobo was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize for "his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China", the Chinese Communist Party censored the news domestically, while publicly denouncing the Nobel Prize internationally. Most Western democracies, however, publicly praised the award and attended the awards ceremony despite pressure from Chinese diplomats. When tennis star Peng Shuai disappeared after accusing Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli of raping her, the Chinese Communist Party's censorship of her story and subsequent staged public appearances of Peng drew increased worldwide scrutiny to her whereabouts and safety. On June 10, 2025, the National Security Department of the Hong Kong Police Force issued a warning reminding citizens that downloading, sharing, recommending, or funding the mobile game *Reversed Front: Beacon Fire* could violate the Hong Kong national security law or the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance. This warning paradoxically led to a sharp increase in the game's popularity, with a significant rise in search and download volumes, gaining further public attention and recognition.
France
The French intelligence agency DCRI's attempt to delete the French Wikipedia article about the military radio station of Pierre-sur-Haute resulted in the restored article temporarily becoming the most-viewed page on the French Wikipedia.
Greece A 2013 libel suit by Greek politician Theodore Katsanevas against a Greek Wikipedia editor resulted in members of the project bringing the story to the attention of journalists.
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