Making censorship backfire

"In the age of instantaneous global communications, overt censorship is always a risky endeavor. Attempts to repress 'dangerous ideas' sometimes have the opposite effect: that is, they serve as catalysts for expanding the reach, resonance and receptivity of those ideas. Propaganda, like other forms of censorship, sometimes backfires, generating antagonism rather than support for the view that is being promoted. This has been dubbed "the boomerang effect." In a kind of double irony, the boomerang concept itself boomeranged as it migrated from its origins in U.S. military strategy documents into the annuals of critical sociological theory and media activism. That is, the boomerang effect, a concept developed by the U.S. Government during World War II in an effort to ensure production of effective war propaganda, created a template that has subsequently been useful in criticizing and countering U.S. propaganda. The boomerang effect has also gained some traction in critiques of corporate propaganda: advertising and public relations. [...] These are but a few of many examples that illustrate the backfire effect described by Baets: in each case, attempts at censorship led to far greater awareness of the target than would have occurred without the interventions of censors. Of course not all censorship backfires; some forms of censorship remain quite effective even in a digital age. The interesting question is, why do some censorship efforts backfire while others succeed?" [Information des Anbieters]