Quinns hit the ‘Streisand effect’ in trying to erase the past

Seán Quinn and his family were the subject of much unflattering media coverage last week following their successful de-listing of numerous critical press articles from Google. But the incident has opened up a wider debate about the ‘right to be forgotten’ online

Seán Quinn and his family succeeded in having a number of news reports de-listed but inadvertently turned the spotlight on themselves in the process. Picture: Collins

Barbra Streisand and Seán Quinn sr are an unlikely pairing, but now they happen to have something quite specific in common. Last week, the former billionaire businessman learned the same harsh lesson that the singer herself was taught nearly 20 years ago.

In 2003, Streisand unsuccessfully sued Kenneth Adelman, a photographer, when he posted pictures of her home in California online. In fact, the image was inadvertently taken of her seafront house in Malibu as ...