Intellectual Freedom News 11/6/2020
Highlights
- Registration opens for ALA Midwinter Virtual, Jan. 22-26; “An impressive list of featured speakers includes Opening Session speakers Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain, and ALA President’s Program speaker Joy Harjo. Also presenting are actors Ethan Hawke and Cicely Tyson; musician Ziggy Marley; and other notables including, Ruby Bridges, Stan Sakai, Max Brooks, Mina Starsiak, Emmanuel Acho, Natalie Baszile, Matt de la Peña, and Christian Robinson, with more to be announced soon.”
- Call for nominations for the Gerald Hodges Intellectual Freedom Chapter Relations Award
Censorship
- Charter School Parents Sue School Over Poetry Book’s “Assault on Christianity” | Friendly Atheist
- Police group issues complaint about book read to students in Burnsville | Bring Me The News (MN)
Privacy and Cybersecurity
- California Voters Approve the California Privacy Rights Act | The National Law Review
- Baltimore’s aerial surveillance pilot program ends Saturday (10/31) | AP News
- COVID’s Impact on Healthcare Data Privacy Continues – This Time in Area of Information Blocking | Consumer Privacy World
- Three places where data is on the ballot this November | MIT Technology Review
- Michigan voters approve warrant requirement for electronic data searches | JURIST
More privacy news is available at the Choose Privacy Every Day blog.
First Amendment, Free Speech, and Civil Liberties
- Supreme Court throws out First Amendment ruling against Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson | USA Today
- Supreme Court Tests LBGTQ Rights Against Free Exercise Claim | Constitutional Law Prof Blog
- Black, homeless people among the first arrested under Columbia’s new hate speech law | The Post and Courier (SC)
- Voters in four states pass ballot measures addressing racial justice issues | JURIST
Copyright
- With Virus Resurgent, PRH Extends Open License for Online Readings Through March 2021 | Publishers Weekly
- Netflix files copyright claims against tweets criticizing movie, trailer | Ars Technica
- Led Zeppelin ‘Stairway to Heaven’ copyright battle revived with new appeal to U.S. Supreme Court | New York Daily News
- Projekt Melody Claims Twitch Ban was from Modeler DMCA; Demanding he Owned her IP | Niche Gamer
- U.S. Copyright Office Releases New Resource On The Digital Millennium Copyright Act | JD Supra
- Inside ‘Single Ladies’ Choreographer JaQuel Knight’s Quest to Copyright His Dances | Billboard
- ‘Enola Holmes’ Producers Blast Copyright Infringement Suit from Conan Doyle Estate | The Hollywood Reporter
Net Neutrality & Broadband Access
- Without broadband internet access, Appalachian Ohio ‘falling behind’ | Columbus Dispatch
- Upload speeds still lag on most Americans’ broadband | USA Today
- T-Mobile eyes TVision, video as way to become home broadband provider, drive 5G | ZDNet
Academic Freedom & Campus Speech
- Federal Appeals Court: Free Speech May Be Chilled at UT Austin | Inside Higher Ed
- Opinion: There Is No Higher Education Without Free Speech | University of Texas News
Social Media
- Why Social Media Is So Good at Polarizing Us | Wall Street Journal
- For Big Tech, what follows ‘free expression’? | Columbia Journalism Review
- Facebook shuts down huge ‘Stop the Steal’ group | The Verge
- Political Groups Elude Facebook’s Election Controls, Repost False Ads | The Wall Street Journal
- Zoom Video Tackles Tricky Role of Policing Its Service | The Wall Street Journal
- Facebook leak reveals policies on restricting New York Post’s Biden story | The Guardian
- TikTok ban once again blocked by judge, this time thanks to three influencers | The Verge
- Judge Doesn’t See Teeth in Trump’s Social Media Order | The Hollywood Reporter
- TikTok creators successfully block U.S. app ban with lawsuit | The Washington Post
- Facebook touts free speech. In Vietnam, it’s aiding in censorship | Daily Republic (CA)
- How TikTok and conservative apps like Parler handle misinformation issues amid 2020 election | The Arizona Republic (AZcentral)
- Opinion: Twitter’s ‘Living’ Censorship | The Wall Street Journal
Journalism, Media, & Disinformation
- Networks cut away from Trump’s White House address | Associated Press
- America’s Press and the Asymmetric War for Truth | The New York Review
- Two-thirds of U.S. adults say they’ve seen their own news sources report facts meant to favor one side | Pew Research
- False News Targeting Latinos Trails the Election | The New York Times
- Election Day compounded an already trying year for journalists of color | Poynter
International News
- China Intensifies Crackdown on Officials Who Bring Banned Books Back Home | Radio Free Asia
- French bookworms denied their fix in lockdown | France 24
- France is undermining civil liberties in the name of fighting terrorism and Canada should say so | The Star
- Chinese-style censorship is no fix for the COVID-19 infodemic | East Asia Forum
- Tiktok to allow MPs to review algorithm over Uyghur censorship concerns | CityAM
- Canadian Civil Liberties Association Threatens Lawsuit Against Province of New Brunswick | Brunswickan
- Canada: Court to hear challenge to ‘religious symbols’ law | Aljazeera
- State stands firm as civil liberty group calls for lifting of protest ban | The Age (Sydney, AU)
Around the Web
- The Senate Race That Could be Pivotal for America—and Wikipedia | Wired
- ‘This is revolutionary’: new online bookshop unites indies to rival Amazon | The Guardian
- #BannedBooksWeek By the Numbers: Making Virtual-First Count | Intellectual Freedom Blog
- Educating Children in a Time of Masks | Intellectual Freedom Blog
- The Antitrust Lawsuit Against Google | Intellectual Freedom Blog
- Despite COVID Concerns, Library Measures Do Well at Polls in 2020 | Library Journal
- Our Collective Power: Coming together for mutual aid and advocacy | American Libraries
- Black Caucus of the ALA Celebrates 50 Years | American Libraries
- Cardi B’s ‘WAP’ proves music’s dirty secret: Censorship is good business | The Baltimore Sun
- Taylor Small wins House seat to become first openly transgender member of Vermont Legislature | Burlington Free Press
- The Chatterley Trial 60 years on: a court case that secured free expression in 1960s Britain | Yahoo News (UK)
- Opinion: Why banning books is problematic | The Tacoma Ledger (WA)
- CPB & DHS leadership visit border wall and discuss censorship | KVOA, News 4 Tucson
- Opinion: The price of self-censorship | The New Indian Express
ALA News
- ‘2019 Academic Library Trends and Statistics’ now available from ACRL
- YALSA releases Outstanding Books for the College Bound recommended reading list
- Updated Caregivers Toolkit Available
ALA Publishing
Awards and Grants
eCourses and Webinars
- Core Webinar Helps you Build a Holistic Employee Engagement Framework
- Create More Effective Policies and Procedures with this Core Webinar
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