Intellectual Freedom News 12/5/2022
Highlights
Censorship
- Louisiana attorney general creates ‘protecting minors’ tip line to report library books | Yahoo News / Lafayette Daily Advertiser
- Library group: Book titles targeted for banning tripled in 2021 | Southern Maryland News
- The year we banned books | Texas Monthly
- Pittsburgh School District unanimously passes resolution against bill barring Critical Race Theory | Just the News (PA)
- Donegal School District librarian quits over guidelines limiting student access to library books | LancasterOnline (PA)
- Some parents object to book read to kids at library in Lincolnwood, others say complaints stigmatize LGBTQ+ community | CBS News (IL)
- After review, library board votes to retain challenged books in juvenile section | Wausau Pilot and Review (WI)
- Library to keep challenged sex ed books | Star News (WI)
- Book challenges on rise in Massachusetts libraries, schools | Gloucester Times (MA)
- Frisco ISD creates webpage to address hot topics | Dallas Morning News (TX)
- Darien school board says ‘Mermaid’ appropriate for 2nd graders despite some parents upset by gender message | Darien Times (CT)
- Texas pays thousands for book removal defense | Axios Austin (TX)
- Grimes school board to re-evaluate handling of book ban requests | KCRG (IA)
- School board adopts sexually explicit material policy | Loudoun Now (VA)
- Controversial books will stay in Natrona County school library | Gillette News Record (WY)
- Guilford County school board votes to keep challenged book, ‘Salvage the Bones,’ in school | Triad City Beat (NC)
- Ashland library book controversy now divides school board as new trustee named | Daily Record (OH)
- These are the 22 books removed from Utah’s Alpine School District | KUER (UT)
First Amendment, Free Speech, & Civil Liberties
- At protests, guns are doing the talking | New York Times
- Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson Don’t Understand the First Amendment | The Atlantic
- Trump calls for the termination of the Constitution in Truth Social post | CNN
- Fresh off US Supreme Court prayer win, national firm backs TN county on Judeo-Christian preamble | Tennessean
- Libraries: Where abortion access and book bans collide | Progressive Magazine
- Georgia voters defy efforts to suppress them | New York Times
- California panel sizes up reparations for Black citizens | New York Times
- Minneapolis settles with 12 hurt in George Floyd protests | AP News
- Oath Keepers convictions shed light on the limits of free speech — and the threat posed by militias | Conversation
- The dark era at stake if Congress allows internet censorship | Daily Beast
- What mental state is required for making a prohibited ‘true threat’? | SCOTUSblog
Privacy & Cybersecurity
- How a cyberattack plunged a Long Island County into the 1990s | New York Times
Legislation
- Kids Online Safety Act may harm minors, civil society groups warn lawmakers | CNBC
- Lessons learned from our classroom censorship win against Florida’s Stop W.O.K.E. Act | ACLU
- Ashcroft’s book ban proposal slammed by ACLU | St. Louis Today (MO)
- Austin leaders brace for state lawmakers to take up bills restricting library content and resources | Austin Monitor (TX)
State and Local Governance
- G.O.P.-controlled county in Arizona holds up election results | New York Times
- Textbook Commission hears from school librarians as they develop guidelines for schools and reading materials | Tennessee Star
Social Media
- Why I quit Elon Musk’s Twitter | New Yorker
- As we lament Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover, we miss the bigger problem for U.S. democracy | Ms. Magazine
- Social media conversations are driven by those on the margins, says new research | Phys.org
Information Literacy & Disinformation
- The U.S. Should Follow the UK’s Lead on Countering Disinformation | International Policy Digest
- Is spreading medical misinformation a doctor’s free speech right? | New York Times
- Lauren Weber joins The Post as an accountability reporter focused on disinformation | Washington Post
International
- Memes, puns, and blank sheets of paper: China’s creative acts of protest | New York Times
- ‘Breach of the Big Silence’: Protests stretch China’s censorship to its limits | New York Times
- With intimidation and surveillance, China tries to snuff out protests | New York Times
- How China’s police used phones and faces to track protesters | New York Times
Around the Web
- In Detroit, a Home for LGBTQ Youth Balances Being Seen With Being Safe | Bloomberg CityLab
- The Proud Boys keep popping up at LGBTQ events | Washington Post
- Opinion: We are Michigan librarians and we’ll stand up against book bans | Traverse City Record Eagle
- The far right is losing. That’s why America has never been so dangerous | Philadelphia Inquirer
- The case against medical abortion rejects science and embraces falsehoods | Hill
- Nearly half of voters say trust in public education declined since pandemic | K-12 Dive
- We Need Diverse Books to launch ‘Books Save Lives’ initiative | School Library Journal
- School principals say culture wars made last year ‘rough as hell’ | NPR
- Schools are becoming hotbeds of political conflict — especially in purple districts | USA Today
ALA News
- LLX Perspectives: Black Artists and Authors at LibLearnX
- Libraries invited to apply for programming support with the third annual Peggy Barber Tribute Grant
- ALA invites applications for fourth annual Libraries Transform Communities Engagement Grant
- AASL Commends All CT Reads
- AASL Commends the Nebraska Library Association and the Nebraska Library Commission
- Choice announces the Outstanding Academic Titles of 2022
- New from ACRL – “Academic Librarian Faculty Status: CLIPP #47”
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