The Streisand Effect is an Internet phenomenon where an attempt to censor or remove a piece of information backfires, causing the information to be widely publicized. Glenn Beck is experiencing the Streisand Effect first hand.

Since the parody web site launched asking if Glenn Beck raped and murdered a young girl in 1990, it has become a fast moving Internet meme. Within a couple days, lawyers representing Beck’s media company, Mercury Radio Arts, contacted the host, registrar, etc. to try and have the site taken down and to learn of the identity of the site’s anonymous owner. The main domain was down briefly, but is back up, accompanied by several other back up domain names, including GB1990.com. There is also a new Facebook page.

Over the past few days, since the lawyers got involved, the meme has only grown, now receiving attention from well-known sites such as Ars Technica, MediaBistro, Techdirt and Gawker. It was also mentioned by Keith Olbermann, though it was in his Worst Persons segment and didn’t mention the site by name. Regardless, Google searches for Glenn Beck soon came with suggestions for rape and murder, thus helping it snowball further.

Trying to have a web site shut down, especially one associated with a popular meme, such as this, is only going to draw more attention to the meme itself. Members of sites, like Reddit, love to come to the defense of people they feel are attacked by companies with deep pockets and the meme will only continue to grow.

So, like Barbara Streisand trying to have pictures of her ocean-front property removed from the Internet, Glenn Beck has only added to the sensation that may or may not involve crimes against a young woman in 1990 (He has yet to comment).

As you’re probably well aware if you’ve visited in the past couple weeks, or were practically anywhere else online, there is a satirical site devoted to a meme created to show Beck’s lack of journalistic integrity. Apparently, a law firm (Cowan, Debaets, Abrahams & Sheppard, LLP) is coming to his defense.

Parody/satire is a protected form of free speech and the rumors are exactly that. Disclaimers aside, nobody, in their right mind, actually believes that Glenn Beck raped, nor murdered a young girl in 1990. The accusation is so groundless as to be ridiculous. Had the rumor involved anything less, it may actually have been believable. Unfortunately, that’s not what the law firm is charging… The law firm in question has contacted the aggregate site for the rumor with a complaint regarding the use of their domain, which contains Glenn Beck’s name.

Obviously, the average Glenn Beck fan’s IQ is not high enough to understand that nobody is actually accusing Beck of rape and murder, nobody thinks rape and murder are funny (except Glenn Beck, joking about poisoning Nancy Pelosi), and it’s not a representation of anybody other than Glenn Beck, because he uses this style of fallacious reasoning without a disclaimer. According to the law firm, the average Glenn Beck fan may be stupid enough as to confuse the domain in question with the “Glenn Beck” trademark.

If the owner of the domain name mentioned is forced to give up the right to the domain name, there are two backups ready, which can be accessed at GB1990.com and GB1990.net.