Intellectual Freedom News 10/4/2019
Highlights
- “Auditing” the First Amendment at your public library | OIF Blog
- Nominations open for 2020 IFRT John Phillip Immroth Memorial Award
- IFRT accepting nominations for 2020 Eli M. Oboler Memorial Award
Censorship
- Book challenges put small library in a bind | Woodburn Independent
- Transgender program on hold after Mid-Continent Public Library receives community complaints | The Pitch (Kansas)
- Someone keeps hiding books critical of President Trump at the Cd’A Library | KREM (ID)
- Prison book bans are ‘arbitrary and irrational,’ report finds | Smithsonian
Privacy and Cybersecurity
- Congress and Trump agreed they want a national privacy law. It is nowhere in sight | The New York Times
- The week in tech: Why Californians have better privacy protections | The New York Times
- How incognito Google Maps protects you – and how it doesn’t | Wired
- In Europe, sites can only track you if you check the box | Wired
- Blindspots in AI just might help protect your privacy | Wired
- Don’t want to read privacy policies? This AI tool will do it for you | Vox
- How to set your Google data to self-destruct | The New York Times
- U.S. government plans to collect DNA from detained immigrants | The New York Times
- Researchers question Census Bureau’s new approach to privacy | The New York Times
- Search for good with Ecosia.org | OIF Blog
Additional privacy posts, news, and updates are available at the Choose Privacy Everyday blog.
Access
- Chicago to become largest U.S. public library system to go fine-free for overdue materials that get returned | Chicago Tribune
- Enjoy free internet at the library? You can thank this woman | Wired
- The MIT Press receives a generous grant from the Arcadia Fund to develop and pilot a sustainable framework for open access monographs | MIT Press Blog
Net Neutrality & Broadband Access
- FCC’s gutting of Obama-era U.S. net neutrality rules upheld | Bloomberg
- Court upholds net neutrality repeal, with some caveats | The New York Times
- Study proves the FCC’s core justification for killing net neutrality was false | Motherboard
- Appeals court upholds net neutrality rules but provides path for states to push back | CNN
- Why Ajit Pai’s “unhinged” net neutrality repeal was upheld by judges | Ars Technica
- Inside the movement to improve access to high-speed internet in rural areas | NPR
Academic Freedom & Campus Speech
- Canceled course renews academic freedom concerns | Inside Higher Ed
- Department of Education threatens academic freedom at Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies | NCAC
Fake News, Free Press, Social Media
- Trolls for hire: Russia’s freelance disinformation firms offer propaganda with a professional touch | CNBC
- Journalists must make the shrinking free press a campaign issue (Opinion) | The Seattle Times
- Facebook risks EU court order to censor hateful posts globally | Bloomberg
- Americans are wary of the role social media sites play in delivering the news | Pew Research Center
First Amendment & Free Speech
- Funny or not, speech is still free | Freedom Forum Institute
Around the Web
- Search Amazon and find if your library has the book for free | Forbes
- Breaking the Silence: An interview with Ruta Sepetys, author of hidden histories | OIF Blog
- The authoritarian’s worst fear? A book (Opinion) | The New York Times
- CBLDF’s Comics in Education Survey reveals top comics in schools & a broad embrace of the format | CBLDF
- Scientific censorship: Not merely a problem of yesterday | OIF Blog
International Issues
- Rocking against censorship in Lebanon | NPR
- Pak censors Indian content to control Kashmir ‘narrative’ |The Tribune India
- Where are books banned? All across the globe | Publishers Weekly
- At Yale’s venture in Singapore, a canceled course on dissent prompts censorship claims | The Washington Post
- Turkish scientist gets 15-month sentence for publishing environmental study | Science
ALA News
- ALA receives $2 million Google.org grant to develop library entrepreneurship centers
- Rainbow Round Table seeks nominations for outstanding service to the LGBTQIA+ community
- New from ACRL–Improving Library Services in Support of International Students and English as a Second Language Learners
- ALA announces National Library Legislative Day to be held in May 2020
- Introducing the Libraries Transform Book Pick
- Nominate a superstar librarian for the I Love My Librarian award before Oct. 21, 2019.
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