Because the &quot;just before&quot; is referring to the overall trend, not the single month before the Snowden leaks. The actual highest single month view count is found in November 2012 with around 4 million views. The months around the Boston Bombing are not outliers. November 2012, as well as July 2014, are outliers. Eliminating these outliers from the analysis <i>strengthens</i> the case for the existence of a chilling effect. See pages 28-39 of the paper [0] for their methodology and findings. If I&#x27;m being unduly short it is because the sort of low-effort skepticism [1] that you offered is all too common with any article involving a statistical analysis.<p>[0] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;papers.ssrn.com&#x2F;sol3&#x2F;papers.cfm?abstract_id=2769645" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;papers.ssrn.com&#x2F;sol3&#x2F;papers.cfm?abstract_id=2769645</a><p>[1] &quot;Did the researchers account for {{obvious factor}}?&quot; Yes, they did. Check before commenting.