How censorship turns ordinary men into martyrs

"Very often we see that attempts to restrict speech often risk making a martyr out of those that you want to silence. Take the Romans and Orthodox Jews who were not happy with the teachings of Jesus. It's fair to say that they did not succeed in silencing Jesus, that his crucifixion was instrumental in creating what became Christianity. In fact, Christianity grew to become a much larger religion than Judaism."

"Socrates is another example. Socrates was executed by the otherwise open and tolerant Athenian democracy. Yet he is by many seen as the most eminent philosopher of all time. More than two millennia later, his ideas live on and are taught to all college students around not only this country, but in many places in the world. In ancient times, this was the martyr effect."

"Barbra Streisand. Someone took a photo of her luxurious mansion, I think, in Malibu, and she fought to get it taken off the internet. That just prompted interest and the photo was spread everywhere. Instead of maybe 100 people or 1000 seeing it, millions saw Barbra Streisand's luxurious Malibu mansion. And this is an effect that we see again and again. Not only are people more interested in prohibited ideas, they may sometimes actually be more likely to believe in them when they're being suppressed."

Attempts to restrict speech often make martyrs of those targeted, amplifying their ideas rather than silencing them. Historical examples include the crucifixion of Jesus, which contributed to the growth of Christianity, and the execution of Socrates, whose ideas endured and spread across centuries. In the digital age, suppression can trigger the Streisand Effect: efforts to remove or hide content frequently provoke wider dissemination and attention. People tend to become more interested in prohibited ideas, and suppression can sometimes increase belief in them. Banning speech therefore risks strengthening the very views it aims to eliminate while undermining the benefits of open expression.

Read at Big Think