Streisand effect gives 'What Is a Woman?' stunning viewership on Twitter

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What is a woman? This basic question was the premise for Daily Wire host Matt Walsh's viral documentary of the same name. The film received attention last year when it was released, but was back in the headlines again after the outlet published it for free on Twitter following Elon Musk's announcement that the platform would allow for longer-form video content to be hosted.

The documentary set off a firestorm of internal feuds at the social media giant, with Twitter's head of trust and safety resigning after Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing published a thread detailing the back-and-forth negotiations with the platform, bringing the issue to the public and drawing in Musk. 

On last night's episode of The Ezra Levant Show, Ezra looked at how this fight played out and why it was such an important win for free speech.

Comparing the documentary's massive viewership on the platform, Ezra likened the incident to the Streisand effect: when a story gains more attention than it initially would have because of a reaction to it.

Now, I think that's exactly what's happened here. I have no doubt that had Twitter allowed it to go viral in the first place it would have had 5 million, maybe 10 million views — no doubt about it.

Maybe it would have had 20 million views like our viral video of the Pfizer CEO when Avi Yemini and I were walking with him in Switzerland.

But to get almost 10-times that number is just so stunning and an enormous success to the Daily Wire, and for free speech.