The Streisand Effect, where trying to hide or censor information leads to more interest in that information, has been seen in sports plenty of times over the years. The latest example of this comes from the Texas A&M Aggies. Ahead of their home loss to the Appalachian State Mountaineers Saturday, the Aggies had their usual “Midnight Yell” practice with lots of mockery of the other school, but some thought parts of the particular mockery here crossed a line, and they and others spent a lot of time making fun of it on Twitter and other social media platforms.
On Monday, though, many of those clips were removed following copyright takedowns filed on behalf of Texas A&M. And that produced a lot of further posts, and further attention. Before we get to that, though, it’s notable that the full 23-minute video is still available on the Aggies’ YouTube channel:
So this certainly hasn’t been fully scrubbed. But the copyright takedowns are certainly annoying for many, and they’re annoying for even those who were looking to see what was going on here from minute-or-so clips rather than a 23-minute video. And the approach of taking down those clips and commentary led to a lot more attention for this video than even the initial clips received. Here are some of the many, many tweets on that:
Funny https://t.co/oG1vEDn8UW
— Ivan Maisel (@Ivan_Maisel) September 12, 2022
Texas A&M took this video down, but not before we saved part of it. Shout out to all you mountaineers out there! pic.twitter.com/hQDvuLTQCb
— Appodlachia (@appodlachia) September 12, 2022
We have acquired the Texas A&M midnight yell leader video‼️ Watch here: pic.twitter.com/QVhz2WJBz1
— Old Row Sports (@OldRowSports) September 12, 2022
https://twitter.com/BradMLee/status/1569399664184524801?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1569399664184524801%7Ctwgr%5Ea238d685c2757996c4b2750f4932d1f4f3db4ab9%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fthecomeback.com%2Fncaa%2Ftexas-am-yell-practice-video-copyright.html
Not Texas A&M raising a copyright infringement complaint about a clip of yell practice, college football internet will definitely allow them to live that down. https://t.co/HVDHyktfYJ
— Weapons formed did in fact prosper (@anchorofgold) September 12, 2022
Was just informed Texas A&M Yell flagged Yell Practice videos for copyright because they don't want anyone seeing that they all practice the surrender cobra pose.
— Mr. Pilkington (@Onikuno) September 12, 2022
Texas A&M keeps on filing DMCA complaints with Twitter to get videos taken down from the Yell Practice ™️
Would be a real shame if people were to see this video. https://t.co/82b50VHYus
— pablo escobarner (blue check) (@PabloEscoburner) September 12, 2022
Notre Dame should just play Texas A&M this week so we have more clarity on what jokes to tell the rest of the way
— Ty Hildenbrandt (@tyhildenbrandt) September 12, 2022
The whole practice of copyright strikes over sports videos has often been criticized. That’s even more the case when it’s around sports–adjacent events like this, or studio shows, rather than actual games or highlights. But this one is particularly notable for it bringing even more attention to the incident in question. And while that may not have been the desired outcome for Texas A&M, that’s what they wound up with.
[The Comeback; screengrab from Texas A&M on YouTube]
