Macklemore stood under the stadium lights at MetLife in East Rutherford, New Jersey, and spoke plainly about Gaza. Ten days later, he was kicked off Ed Sheeran’s tour. Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, had pressured Sheeran after calling the rapper’s pro-Palestinian speech a step too far. Other stadium owners followed suit, blocking Macklemore from future venues. But instead of silencing him, the backlash turned into a megaphone. His Instagram followers jumped by over 1.6 million in just days. Streams of his music surged. All of Sheeran’s other opening acts walked out in solidarity. At least one major radio network stopped playing Sheeran’s songs entirely. What looked like cancellation became a comeback.
This isn’t the first time silence has backfired. It even has a name: the Streisand effect. In 2003, Barbra Streisand tried to erase photos of her home from the internet—only to make them go viral. Today, the same pattern shows up in book bans across the U.S. Since 2021, attempts to remove books from schools have skyrocketed—from 729 reported challenges that year to 1,269 in 2022. Many of these books deal with race, gender, or LGBTQ+ experiences. But data from 38 states shows that when a book is banned, it doesn’t disappear—it circulates more. On average, banned books saw a 12% rise in checkouts over six months compared to similar books that weren’t targeted.
The effect was strongest for books by lesser-known authors, and each new ban on the same title boosted circulation by another 2%. Even in states where no ban happened, people started checking out these books—circulation rose 11%, nearly as much as in banned areas. Local news stories spread to national outlets, then exploded on social media. Books like Gender Queer and Lawn Boy, both frequently challenged, saw huge spikes in demand. Those that didn’t trend online saw little change. Attention, it turns out, is the opposite of erasure.
What censors often miss is this: trying to hide something can be the fastest way to spotlight it. Whether it’s a concert speech or a school library shelf, pushing something out of view often pulls it into focus. And now, more than ever, millions are watching.