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.
“Bro, Sama is using Sora to
make videos of himself commiting ‘crimes’? That’s a Streisand Deflect if I’ve ever
seen one…”