Intellectual Freedom News

December 2, 2016

Intellectual Freedom Highlights

• ‘Perks of Being a Wallflower’ to remain required reading for Dubuque AP literature class | KCRG; “After nearly 3 hours of public comment, mostly in support of keeping the book, the committee of parents, teachers, and students unanimously voted to take no action. That means the book will remain an assigned reading for that class.”
• Warning: Explicit Content | Intellectual Freedom Blog; “Labels provide little information about the totality of a book’s content, the real outcome of rating or flagging books has been to limit access to materials for students.”
• Webinar: Student Rights, Protests and Free Speech; “Be proactive in your protection of free speech and student voices. Hear from a nationally recognized consultant on what is legally protected for minors and how not to piss off your administration.”

Censorship

• Lemont H.S. class reading list questioned by parents | Cook County Chronicle; “The school pulled Booker-prize winning novel “The God of Small Things,” published in 1997 by Arundhati Roy, from the reading list of the Academic English II class, because the book “contains subject matter in some sections that is not appropriate for our students,” wrote Principal Eric Michaelsen in a Nov. 2 email to parents.” (Illinois)
• ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ suspended in Accomack schools | Delmarva Now (Virginia)
  • ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ ‘Huck Finn’ suspended in schools | WCNC
• Sign with hangman’s noose to promote KHS play is removed after community outcry | Daily Freeman News (Kingston, NY)

Access

• Using school buses to democratize wi-fi |BBC (Los Angeles)
• $3M grant provides free access to tech gadgets at all Brooklyn Public Library branches | Metro (NY)
• Chicago Public Library, CTA partnering to offer free Chicago-related content to riders | ABC7 Eyewitness News
• A Bronx librarian keen on teaching homeless children a lasting love of books | New York Times
• Libraries and rural broadband | Benton Foundation
• Columbus libraries to eliminate overdue book fines | WCMH-TV (Ohio)

Privacy

• Libraries Protecting Privacy on Social Media: Sharing without “Oversharing” | Pennsylvania Libraries: Research & Practice
• Tim Cook says Apple doesn’t need to sacrifice user privacy to improve its AI | BGR
• FBI to gain expanded hacking powers as Senate effort to block fails | The New York Times (Rule 41)
• Congress is about to expand government hacking powers | MIT Technology Review (Rule 41)
• Librarians stand for right to privacy and freedom of speech | Public Libraries Online
• Libraries promise to destroy user data to avoid threat of government surveillance | The Guardian (NYPL)
• A beginner’s guide to beefing up your privacy and security online | Ars Technica

Net Neutrality

• Trump’s latest FCC advisor opposes Title II, supports data cap exemptions | Ars Technica
• Will net neutrality survive Donald Trump? | The Verge

Hate Speech & Libraries

• Hate Speech & Protests | AASL Knowledge Quest
• More swastikas appear in McCabe Library | The Phoenix (Swarthmore College, Philadelphia)
• Campus libraries see increase in discriminatory incidents | Library Journal
• City librarian speaks out against hate graffiti at Toronto Public Library branch | CBC News

First Amendment Issues

• Trump calls for revoking flag burners’ citizenship. Court rulings forbid it | The New York Times
• What the Supreme Court has said about flag burning | CNN
• Syracuse University free-speech advocate challenges Trump’s view of flag burning | Syracuse
• Can a school board ban wearing safety pins? | Constitutional Law Professors Blog (Kansas)
• Bipartisan online speech bill passes: Prevents anti-disparagement clauses | Multichannel News
• Is fake news protected by the First Amendment? | Standard Examiner
• George Carlin’s seven words no longer matter, but his love for free speech does | The Federalist
• Free-speech groups describe campus media as besieged | Chronicle of Higher Education
• Editorial – An important First Amendment reminder | Richmond Times Dispatch

Internet Filtering

• Bill would force internet devices to filter pornography, other ‘obscene’ materials | NM Political Report (New Mexico)
• Q&A: The science of online censorship | ScienceMag

Around the Web

• Breakdown in civility hits Delaware library | Delaware Online
• Teachers’ Moral Imperative to Challenge Political Hatred | Ed Week
• Trump supporters bring guns to anti-Trump meeting | Cincinnati.com; “Two men wearing “Make America Great Again” hats and firearms sat quietly in a room at the Covington library. They watched 15 people make posters for an “anti-hate” rally this Saturday to protest policies of President-elect Donald Trump, one of the organizers, Rachael Winters, posted on Facebook Wednesday night. While nothing got out of hand, the decision of the two unidentified men to openly display firearms has caused a stir on social media. Many commenters saw it as an intimidation tactic.”
• Calif. Ranks 50th in U.S. for school library services | KXTV
• Maine State Library study finds that Librarian is one of the most trusted professions | Library Research Service
• Professor Watchlist is seen as threat to academic freedom | The New York Times
• Richard Spencer’s host at Texas A&M is the country’s “Strongest Skinhead” | The Texas Tribune
• The entire Internet will be archived in Canada to protect it from Trump | Motherboard
• Women and minority groups self-censor online to avoid harassment, study says | NY Magazine
• Google’s hand-fed AI now gives answers, not just search results | Wired
• Free-Speech Groups Describe Campus Media as Besieged | Chronicle of Higher Education
• Student Media Under Fire | Academe Blog; “The report cites multiple cases in which college and university administrations exerted pressure in attempts to control, edit, or censor student journalistic content and to threaten the academic freedom of faculty advisers.”
• Tufts University Student Government: Free Speech Resolution ‘Harmful,’ ‘Unsafe’ | Reason
• Pupils’ stand for free speech is a lesson to us all | The Guardian

International Issues

• Facebook’s Tough Choice in China: Censor or Not | Forbes
• Facebook runs up against German hate speech laws | The New York Times
• UK to censor online videos of ‘non-conventional’ sex acts | The Guardian (UK)
• A Malaysian political cartoonist on facing his fears, and prison, for art | The New York Times
• Germany planning to ‘massively’ limit privacy rights | Deutsche Welle
• What is the Investigatory Powers Bill and what does it mean for my privacy? | The Telegraph (UK)
• ‘It’s like they were selling heroin to schoolkids’: censorship hits booksellers at Kuwait book fair | The Guardian
• Egyptian court rejects Naji’s third appeal for release | CBLDF
• Government shuts down libraries owned by rights activist Gamal Eid | Mada (Egypt)
• Qatari news website raises ‘censorship’ concerns | Al Jazeera (Qatar)
• Phone book backlash – Church lobby forces yellow pages to find alternative scene for directory cover | The Gleaner (Jamaica)
• Plymouth students vote to ban ‘hate-filled’ tabloids | The Herald (UK)

Office for Intellectual Freedom

• Webinar: Student Rights, Protests and Free Speech
• Call for nominations for the Gerald Hodges IF Chapter Relations Award

ALA News

• I Love My Librarian award winners announced | American Libraries

 

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