When the mayor of a town calls the media chickens for releasing footage of the same towns finest police officers being chickens and allowing kids to die.
That mayor calling other people chickens rather than the police officers on camera being chickens is the best example of deflection I have ever seen.
by Iseekells July 13, 2022
Get the Deflection mug.When a powerful person, company, or institution deliberately floods the internet with unrelated but highly searchable content in order to bury or “deflect” attention from an embarrassing rumor, scandal, or conspiracy.
The move usually involves releasing something with the exact same keyword as the damaging story, so when people Google it, they get the official, harmless version instead of the scandal.
Examples:
• People joked that Disney named the movie Frozen so that when you search “Disney Frozen,” you get the animated princess and not stories about Walt Disney’s frozen head.
• Rumors spread that Beyoncé had a year-long affair with her bodyguard; not long after, she dropped a song called Bodyguard.
• Gross gossip about Dubai “chocolate porta-potties” parties started circulating, then suddenly “Dubai Chocolate” became a big marketing push.
The move usually involves releasing something with the exact same keyword as the damaging story, so when people Google it, they get the official, harmless version instead of the scandal.
Examples:
• People joked that Disney named the movie Frozen so that when you search “Disney Frozen,” you get the animated princess and not stories about Walt Disney’s frozen head.
• Rumors spread that Beyoncé had a year-long affair with her bodyguard; not long after, she dropped a song called Bodyguard.
• Gross gossip about Dubai “chocolate porta-potties” parties started circulating, then suddenly “Dubai Chocolate” became a big marketing push.
“Bro, Sama is using Sora to make videos of himself commiting ‘crimes’? That’s a Streisand Deflect if I’ve ever seen one…”
by Streissyboi99 October 2, 2025
Get the Streisand Deflect mug.