Intellectual Freedom News 12/28/18
December 28, 2018 – Collated by OIF Staff and News Editors
Intellectual Freedom Highlights
- Call for nominations for the Gerald Hodges Intellectual Freedom Chapter Relations Award (due January 1)
- OIF Seeks Censorship Information from 2018
Censorship
- A digital age book burning | OIF Blog
- Critics want Huntington Woods Library to end Drag Queen Story Time | Detroit Free Press
- Controversy surrounding drag queen storytime at metro Detroit library | WXYZ Detroit
- Huntington Woods debate: Kill or keep library’s Drag Queen Story Hour? | Detroit Free Press
- Program backlash leads to policy consideration at Wichita Public Library | KSN.com (KS)
- Worcester comes to library’s defense after Drag Queen Storytime post draws a hateful mob | Worchester Magazine (MA)
- I escaped queer censorship in Putin’s Russia. Trump’s America is just as bad. | Out
- The line between us, YouTube, and censorship | KIRO Radio (WA)
- Social-media censorship is an insult to users | Spiked
- The most common forms of censorship the public doesn’t know about | TechCrunch
- Patreon bars anti-feminist for racist speech, inciting revolt | The New York Times
Privacy
- Bill Marden – Director of Privacy and Compliance, New York Public Library – Privacy and Treasures (podcast) | Buzzsprout
- Facebook says a new bug allowed apps to access private photos of up to 6.8 million users | Washington Post
- It’s time for a Bill of Data Rights | Technology Review
- NPR’s move into podcasting analytics raises privacy concerns | Columbia Journalism Review
- Man sues feds after being detained for refusing to unlock his phone at airport | Ars Technica
- Is It ethical to post pictures of your kids on Instagram? | The New Republic
- Google Glass wasn’t a failure. It raised crucial concerns | Wired
- Home addresses are up for sale. Time to take back your privacy. | New York Times
- Bill Gates says privacy regulation for tech companies ‘makes a lot of sense’ | The Hill
- EFF to appellate court: Protect biometric privacy | Electronic Frontier Foundation
- The Year Ahead: Tech braces for new scrutiny from Washington | The Hill
- Google Play store apps for kids threatens privacy and poses other harms – Groups call for FTC action to protect children and families | Center for Digital Democracy
- Google targeted by consumer groups over children’s apps | Bloomberg
- What we can learn about online privacy from climate change | New York Times
- Social media needs transparent privacy policies for healthcare data | Health IT Security
- The future of crime-fighting is family tree forensics | Wired
- ACLU to feds: Your “hacking presents a unique threat to individual privacy” | Ars Technica
Net Neutrality and Broadband Access
- Net neutrality battle heads to court in 2019 | Cnet
- A year after the net neutrality repeal, Latinos are still waiting for increased broadband deployment, choice in providers, and lower prices | National Hispanic Media Coalition
- A year without net neutrality: No big changes (yet) | Wired
- Despite the media’s prophecies of doom a year ago, the internet is alive and well | American Enterprise Institute
- Charter is returning $62.5 million to New Yorkers over slow Internet speeds in what regulators call the biggest ISP refund ever | Washington Post
- The year without the Open Internet Order: 2018 year in review | EFF
Access
- College students want to fight rape culture with a porn filter. But are the two related? | Philly.com
- Jackson Street School parents and guardians: Bring professional librarians back to Northampton elementary schools | Daily Hampshire Gazette (MA)
- Academic e-book usability from the student’s perspective | Evidence Based Library & Information Practice
Copyright
Free Press, Social Media, and Fake News
- Google’s algorithm isn’t biased, It’s just not human | Wired
- How Russian trolls used meme warfare to divide America | Wired
- How you can help fight the information wars | New York Times
- Inside Facebook’s secret rulebook for global political speech | The New York Times
Academic Freedom & Campus Speech
- Texas makes public colleges forbid contractors to boycott Israel. A lawsuit says that violates the First Amendment. | Chronicle for Higher Education
- More Chinese censorship of international journals | Inside Higher Ed
- British publisher pulls academic journals from China after government complaint | The New York Times
First Amendment and Free Speech
- Bill of Rights Day and Intellectual Freedom | Office for Intellectual Freedom
- Ted Lieu clarifies his ‘inartful’ free-speech comments | National Review
- Don’t trust the government to make Big Tech behave | New York Post
- Trump goes after NBC and ‘Saturday Night Live,’ says content ‘should be tested in courts’ | Variety
- You can’t have #MeToo without free speech. Just ask Australians. | Reason
- Tumblr adult content ban will chill free expression online | National Coalition Against Censorship
- The Tucker Carlson boycott isn’t censorship. It’s fighting speech with speech. | Huffington Post
- ACLU sues government to learn about NSA call records program | The New York Times
Hate Crimes and Hate Speech
- Judge won’t drop hate-crime charges in school graffiti case | The State (MD)
- Minorities suffer the most from hate-speech laws | Spiked
- Big tech censorship of hate speech may cause violence, warns terrorism expert | PJ Media
Around the Web
- An interview with author Sophie Labelle | OIF Blog
- Questioning the dogma of Banned Books Week | Library Philosophy and Practice (new article)
- Banned books of the past 5 years (and why they were challenged) | Reddit
- Alice Walker under fire for praise of ‘antisemitic’ David Icke book | The Guardian
- SF schools face pressure to remove offensive depictions of Native Americans from mural, textbooks | San Francisco Examiner
- A (brief) history of music censorship in America | Paste Magazine
- The ‘future book’ is here, but it’s not what we expected | Wired
- Sen. Reed’s Museum and Library Act goes to Pres. Trump for signing | Providence Journal
- Alleged killer of Natomas librarian had history of threats toward librarians | Sacramento Bee
- Happy birthday, Stephenie Meyer | OIF Blog
- NYPL’s chief digital officer says public is better off when libraries are ‘risk averse’ about tech | Geekwire
International Issues
- Fears over freedom in Hong Kong are rising as an Australian researcher reveals he was followed and profiled by a Communist Party tabloid | Business Insider
- Vladimir Putin wants to ‘control’ rap music in Russia | Mercury
- Instagram will now censor hate speech in Bahasa Indonesia | MenaFM
- 2018 was the year Chinese internet users evaded censorship — briefly | The Verge
- Pakistan’s journalists complain of increasing censorship | The Washington Post
- India proposes regulation to force tech platforms to censor the web and shatter security | Gizmodo
- Egypt releases UW doctoral student from prison – but uncertainty remains amid crackdown on free expression | The Seattle Times
ALA News
- PLA to offer regional symposia on equity, diversity, inclusion and social justice in libraries (click for dates and locations)
- YALSA opens proposals for 2019 YA Services Symposium (due February 1)
- Information rights for records managers (new resource)
- 2019 Loleta D. Fyan Grant now accepting proposals (due January 11)
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