Highlights

• ALA responds to Citrus County’s New York Times block | American Libraries
• Florida librarians: Here’s why Citrus County was wrong to reject to The New York Times | Tallahassee Democrat
• ALA turns to Congress as Macmillan ignores public call to reverse library e-book embargo

Censorship

• Commissioners call New York Times ‘fake news,’ deny library funding for digital subscriptions| Tampa Bay Times
  • Commissioners need a lesson in library ethics | Citrus County Chronicle (FL)
  • Amid Trump-NYT controversy, everyone has a thought for Citrus County | Tampa Bay Times
• Books in Idaho prisons: What’s allowed, what isn’t, and what they mean to those inside | Idaho Press
• Backlash, support aimed at Loudoun Co. schools’ diverse books program | WTOP
• Illinois prisons ban black history books | Afro
• Illinois Department of Corrections revises book ban policy | The Appeal
• Delta is restoring ‘Booksmart’ & ‘Rocketman’s censored LGBTQ+ love scenes | Bustle
• Netflix CEO defends censoring anti-government video in Saudi Arabia | Ars Technica

Privacy and Cybersecurity

• Anonymous Signs Help Brookline Library Patrons Find Sensitive Information | Wicked Local Brookline
• Personalization vs. privacy | American Libraries
• Facial recognition sparks transparency battle | Law360
• ISPs lied to Congress to spread confusion about encrypted DNS, Mozilla says | Ars Technica
• The government protects our food and cars. Why not our data? | New York Times
• I got access to my secret consumer score. Now you can get yours, too. | New York Times
• New bill would create Digital Privacy Agency to enforce privacy rights | Ars Technica
• Facebook reveals new privacy mishap involving apps for groups | Washington Post
• Leaked documents show Facebook leveraged user data to fight rivals and help friends | NBC News
• Former Twitter employees charged with spying for Saudi Arabia | New York Times

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

Access

• Hunters Point Library confronts accessibility issues | Library Journal
• The Internet Archive is making Wikipedia more reliable | Wired
• Contract concerns | American Libraries: “Unions protect library workers, but are they keeping us from reaching teens?”

Net Neutrality & Broadband Access

• Digital divide persists in NC despite broadband availability; task force seeks to drive up usage | Tech Wire
• Internet freedom declines in U.S. for third consecutive year | Washington Post

Academic Freedom & Campus Speech

• Scholars at Risk’s free online course on academic freedom | OIF Blog
• Professor leaves Liberty U, citing academic freedom | Inside Higher Education
• Michigan student reacts after university announces it won’t reinstate the ‘Bias Response Team’ | Fox News
• U. of Washington College Republicans’ recognition is yanked over ‘hurtful and inappropriate conduct’ | Chronicle of Higher Education
• College ranking metrics should include academic freedom | Inside Higher Ed

Fake News, Free Press, Social Media

• Protect Press Freedom: Protect Your Right to Know | Reporters’ Committee
• Teaching disinformation literacy | OIF Blog
• Check your facts: Libraries use tech tools to fight fake news | American Libraries
• Media literacy in the age of fake news | American Libraries
• Disinformation ‘works better than censorship,’ warns internet freedom report | Tech Crunch
• Inside TikTok: A culture clash where U.S. views about censorship often were overridden by the Chinese bosses | Washington Post

First Amendment & Free Speech

• U.S. Supreme Court declines to review religious freedom challenge to public school unit on Islam | Baptist Joint Committee
• Libraries, literacy, and lip-syncing: Drag Queen Story Hour and free speech | OIF Blog
• Hawthorne police investigating racial slur written on public library | northjersey.com
• US Department of Justice push for encryption backdoors might run afoul of First Amendment | CSO
• Chilling the hostility to free speech | The Hill
• The free speech election | Axios
• Teacher-led prayer: unconstitutional but appropriate? | Freedom Forum Institute
• Freedom of religion and worshipping in Texas prisons Brown v. Collier (2019) | Freedom Forum Institute

Around the Web

• ‘They said women’s minds were too weak for reading.’ Forbidden literacy in Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments | OIF Blog
• Unauthorized practice of law in the library | American Libraries
• Why the His Dark Materials books were once considered ‘dangerous’ | Esquire
• America’s First Banned Book Really Ticked Off the Plymouth Puritans | Atlas Obscura
• In ‘Theory’ professor lets students say whatever they want online. Disaster follows. | Washington Post
• Reilly takes on censorship through humor | Bonner County Daily Bee (ID)
• Why ban children’s literature? | The News on Sunday

International Issues

• Megan Murphy transgender controversy raises questions about the limits of free speech | Toronto Star
• Russia’s ‘sovereign internet’ law takes effect | Engadget
• Great school libraries: A UK campaign promoting and essential service | Book Riot
• Why Hong Kong protesters are forcing university leaders to pick a side—academic freedom is at stake | South China Morning Post
• UK lawmakers warn of Chinese meddling on university campuses | CNN
• Study: Russia’s web-censoring tool sets pace for imitators | New York Times
• Questions around who can book public spaces at Edmonton Public Library | City News (Canada)

ALA News

• New National Library Week materials and more from ALA Graphics
• ALA unveils shortlist for 2020 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction
• Nominations open for 2020 IFRT John Phillip Immroth Memorial Award—deadline December 1
• IFRT accepting nominations for 2020 Eli M. Oboler Memorial Award—deadline December 1
• Call for nominations for the Gerald Hodges Intellectual Freedom Chapter Relations Award—deadline January 1
• Rainbow Round Table seeks nominations for outstanding service to the LGBTQIA+ community—deadline December 30

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

• current book challenges in libraries and schools
• articles about privacy, internet filtering and censorship
• ALA activities, conferences and institutes, products, online learning opportunities, awards and grants, international exchanges, and more
• how to get involved and make the most of what ALA offers

You can also find us at Facebook, Twitter, and online. Or email us at oif@ala.org