Barbra Streisand’s music remains available on Spotify and she has not asked for its removal, fact-checkers say
Adding indication of misspelling in tweet on paragraph 2
Online claims that singer Barbra Streisand said she’d remove her music from Spotify if the company failed to deplatform U.S. podcaster Joe Rogan “immediately” are unsupported.
“Breaking news Barbara (sic) Streisand threatens to remove music from Spotify if it doesn’t deplatform Joe Rogan immediately,” reads a tweet from Feb. 3 that has garnered at least 7,253 retweets ( here ).
“It amazes me how many musicians of all people are demanding censorship,” a Facebook user commented. “The amount of ‘Irrelevant Has Beens’ looking for 15 more minutes of fame is sad at this point,” another one wrote.
A representative for Streisand told Reuters the allegation is false.
Reuters found no evidence that Streisand made such a statement. A review of her social media profiles on Twitter ( here ), Facebook ( here ) and Instagram ( here ) as well as her official website ( barbrastreisand.com/home/ ) brought no relevant results.
As of Feb. 4, Streisand’s music is still available on Spotify ( here ).
Some users sharing the claim reference the so-called “Streisand effect” ( here ) ( here ), which is a “phenomenon whereby the attempt to suppress something only brings more attention or notoriety to it,” as explained by Merriam-Dictionary ( here ). The name of the phenomenon traces back to 2003, when the singer sued a photographer over a picture of her Malibu beach house; the lawsuit subsequently brought more attention to the image she wanted removed from the internet. ( www.bbc.com/news/uk-18458567 )
Imagine being Barbra Streisand and not knowing about the Barbra Streisand Effect https://t.co/NeBjU1YdF5
— Clifton Duncan (@cliftonaduncan) February 4, 2022
