Highlights

• Nominations open for 2020 IFRT John Phillip Immroth Memorial Award
• IFRT accepting nominations for 2020 Eli M. Oboler Memorial Award
• ALA’s eBooksForAll petition exceeds 100,000 signatures | Library Journal

Censorship

• Georgia college students burned the books of a Latina author | CNN
• Diversity Library’ school initiative sparks objections | Loudoun Now (VA)
• ACLU: Cautioning against censorship at LCPS libraries | Loudoun Times
• Col. Co. School Superintendent removes three books from curriculum | WJBF.com (GA)
  • “Dear Martin” author responds to book removal from Col. Co. curriculum | WJBF.com (GA)
• CD’A Library’s Book Bandit Strikes Again | Bonner County Daily
• Islam in public school challenge rejected by Supreme Court | Bloomberg Law
• Charleston mayor cancels Book Festival appearance, citing anti-LGBTQ author | Charleston Gazette-Mail (WV)
• Drag queen program at Vancouver Community Library defended | The Columbian

Privacy and Cybersecurity

• Americans and Digital Knowledge | Pew Research Center: A majority of U.S. adults can answer fewer than half the questions correctly on a digital knowledge quiz, and many struggle with certain cybersecurity and privacy questions
• The delicate ethics of using facial recognition in schools | Wired
• Cities examine proper – and improper – uses of facial recognition | Wired
• Privacy matters: A critique of open libraries | OIF Blog
• Who should enforce privacy protections? | New America
• Privacy bill would give FTC actual authority, land lying executives in jail | Ars Technica
• Chrome rolls out new protections preventing password and data theft | Ars Technica
• Students under surveillance? Data-tracking enters a provocative new phase | The Chronicle of Higher Education

Additional privacy posts, news, and updates are available at the Choose Privacy Everyday blog.

Access

• Inequality in school library access is a ‘social mobility time bomb’, says Cressida Cowell | iNews
• Army defends decision to close space, tech library | StarTribune (AL)

Net Neutrality & Broadband Access

• Washington State keeps enforcing net neutrality as it hails FCC court loss | Ars Technica
• Denver council members eye broader broadband to address internet inequalities | Colorado Politics
• Anacortes, Washington, is building a public broadband network. Is it a model for bridging the digital divide? | GeekWire

Academic Freedom & Campus Speech

• The real threat to free speech on campus isn’t coming from the left | The Washington Post
• Free expression and government overreach | Inside Higher Ed

Fake News, Free Press, Social Media

• Defiant Zuckerberg says Facebook won’t police political speech | The New York Times
• Twitter: World leaders’ accounts not entirely above policies | The New York Times

First Amendment & Free Speech

• Tech companies get a free pass on moderating content | Slate
• From NBA to Trump to our ears and eyes, how free speech works | Freedom Forum Institute

Around the Web

• Every child can become a lover of books | The Atlantic
• Safety in libraries: A continuum | OIF Blog
• Tech giants fight digital right-to-repair bills | Pew Research

International Issues

• Toronto Public Library under fire over event by controversial speaker | The Chronicle Journal
• Tech companies didn’t plan for Chinese censorship | Motherboard
• Turkish ISP blocks social media sites near Syrian border | Wired
• Netflix and Amazon face censorship in India: Source | The New York Times

ALA News

• New from ACRL: “Libraries Promoting Reflective Dialogue in a Time of Political Polarization”
• Public libraries across U.S. join American Library Association’s first “digital book club” with gripping new ebook
• Rainbow Round Table seeks nominations for outstanding service to the LGBTQIA+ community
• Nominate a superstar librarian for the I Love My Librarian award before Oct. 21, 2019.

Subscribe to future issues of Intellectual Freedom News, a free weekly compilation of news delivered to your inbox by the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom, including

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• articles about privacy, internet filtering and censorship
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