Intellectual Freedom News 12/22/2017
December 22, 2017 – Collated by OIF Staff and News Editors
Intellectual Freedom Highlights
- Net Neutrality and the Library Bill of Rights | OIF Blog; “Repealing net neutrality allows ISPs and major corporations to use power and money to influence what materials are available online. These regulations are essential to the foundation upon which libraries were built.”
- The origins of the Hays Code: How self-censorship influenced the movie industry | OIF Blog
Censorship
- The hate she received: Why the banning of Angie Thomas’ book was an insult to the Black Lives Matter movement | OIF Blog; “The Hate U Give”
- Palestinian children’s book becomes target for boycott and censorship | Literary Hub, “P is for Palestine”
- CBLDF joins call to restore BUCK to classrooms in Maryland | CBLDF
- New details emerge about the Trump administration’s censorship trends | Salon
- Words banned at multiple HHS agencies include ‘diversity’ and ‘vulnerable’ | Washington Post
- A CDC ban on ‘fetus’ and ‘transgender?’ Experts alarmed | Associated Press
- Did Trump ban words at the CDC? The full story is less simple | Elite Daily
- How censorship can harm public health | The Boston Globe
- Trump’s censorship of science will kill people | Newsweek
- Human rights group flashes ‘banned words’ across Trump’s D.C. hotel | UPI
Privacy
- Deadlock on NSA Surveillance Bills | District Dispatch
- Key NSA surveillance program’s reauthorization hits roadblock in Congress | The Washington Post
- Congress has just days to extend, reform, or repeal the controversial law that the US government track calls and emails | Business Insider
- Senate GOP Aims for Short-Term Extension of Surveillance Law | US News and World Report
- A cute toy just brought a hacker into your home | The New York Times
- Facial scans at U.S. airports violate Americans’ privacy, report says | The New York Times
- Facebook flashes ramped-up face-recog tech. Try not to freak out | The Register
- Privacy in 2017: A year in review | International Association of Privacy Professionals
See this week’s additional privacy news and updates on the Choose Privacy Week blog.
Access
- The case against library fines – according to the head of the New York Public Library | Quartz
- Thirty percent of Oakland school libraries closed, district lays off head librarian | Fox KTVU News
- OER adoptions on the rise | Inside Higher Education
Net Neutrality and Broadband Access
- The Net Neutrality Debate: Access to Broadband Networks | Congressional Research Service
- 25 Senators are supporting a resolution to undo the FCC’s net neutrality repeal | The Verge
- After net neutrality, brace for Internet fast lanes | USA Today
- Facts are stubborn things – understanding the hysteria surrounding net neutrality | Forbes
- New York tries end-run around FCC preemption with net neutrality bill | Ars Technica
- The attack on net neutrality is just one small part of a much bigger, dumber plan | Motherboard
- In protests of net neutrality repeal, teenage voices stood out | The New York Times
- Rural broadband advocate Tina Smith will replace Al Franken in Congress | Motherboard
- Readers sound off: Consumers can’t boycott internet providers; that’s why we needed net neutrality | USA Today
- Right and left react to the FCC’s repeal of net neutrality rules | The New York Times
- Koch Brothers are cities’ new obstacle to building broadband | Wired
Internet Filters
- Students, the website you’ve visited at high school will now be seen by your parents | Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
- The E-Rate Program: 6 Big Numbers to Know | Education Week
Free Press, Social Media, and Fake News
- Fake news. It’s complicated. | First Draft
- Twitter today starts enforcing new rules around violence and hate | TechCrunch
- How Facebook stymies social science: When private companies hold data that scholars need, what becomes of academic research? | Chronicle of Higher Ed
- T-Mobile, Amazon, and other companies are accused of using Facebook ads to exclude older Americans from jobs | The Washington Post
Academic Freedom and Campus Speech
- UNC cracks down on disruptions with new free speech policy | Campus Reform
First Amendment and Free Speech
- Can Public Display of Pictures of Nudity Be Criminalized? | The Volokh Conspiracy
- The chaos of cacophony of unfettered free speech | Publisher’s Weekly
- What If the Founders Had Free Speech Wrong? | Bloomberg
- Barring the f-word and other ‘immoral or scandalous’ trademarks is unconstitutional court rules | The Washington Post; “On Friday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that Fuct, while vulgar, was protected speech under the First Amendment.”
- Federal appeals court upholds Metro’s ban on Christmas-themed ad, at least for now | The Washington Post
- Not-guilty verdicts for first six people on trial in violent Inauguration Day protests | The Washington Post
- Iowa justice blocks newspaper from reporting court records | The Spokesman-Review
- First amendment is at a crossroads in Supreme Court | CNN
- The state of the First Amendment: 2017’s top free speech offenders and defenders | NCAC
- 9th Circuit applies strict scrutiny, upholds restrictions on judges and judicial candidates | The Newseum
Around the Web
- The Kindle changed the book business, can it change books? | Wired
- Closure plans for Cincinnati Library’s North Building spark concerns | Library Journal; “Update: At an emergency meeting on Wednesday, December 20, the PLCHC board voted 5–0 (two members were not in attendance) not to sell the North Building. Instead, the library will seek a 1 mill tax levy in May, 2018 to help supplement its $54 million facilities plan. The library will host a community conversation on December 27.”
- Ten reasons libraries are still better than the internet | American Libraries
- The lazy person’s guide to being a good citizen | The Newseum
- NIH Lifts Ban On Research That Could Make Deadly Viruses Even Worse | NPR
International Issues
- Former Sudanese journalist discusses free press and censorship | Seven Days
- Turkish authorities seek to expand censorship to Cyprus | Ifex25
- UK to guarantee high-speed internet to entire country | The Hill
- China surveillance streaming platform shut down amid privacy concerns | The New York Times
- Twelve days in Xinjiang: How China’s surveillance state overwhelms daily life | The Wall Street Journal
- Here come the new EU rules on data privacy | The Wall Street Journal
ALA News
- U.S. Senators Seek to Enhance Support for America’s Libraries & Museums “Today’s introduction of the bipartisan MLSA reauthorization is the first critical step toward ensuring federal support for our nation’s nearly 120,000 libraries,” said American Library Association President Jim Neal. “LSTA grants enable libraries in every state to innovate and meet the growing demand for services that meet the needs of our communities. Millions of people – including students, veterans, entrepreneurs and job seekers – depend on the programs that the MLSA will allow to continue. ALA supports this bill and encourages our members and library supporters across the country to urge their senators to cosponsor the MLSA.”
- Libraries invited to apply for Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Great Stories Club pilot program for underserved youth
- YALSA opens proposals for 2018 Symposium
- Applications available for ALA Awards and Grants
- Sarah Jessica Parker selects Ayobami Adebayo’s ‘Stay with Me’ for ALA Book Club Central pick | PR Newswire
- Academic library workers invited to free dialogue and deliberation workshop at Midwinter 2018
- New “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” PSAs capture the action and adventure found at the library
- Nominations open for 2018 Lemony Snicket Prize for Noble Librarians Faced with Adversity
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