December 8, 2017 – Collated by OIF Staff and News Editors

Intellectual Freedom Highlights

• Holocaust denial books in the academic library | OIF Blog
• SpeakUP! blog launches – The IFLA Advisory Committee on Freedom of Access to Information and Freedom of Expression (FAIFE) has launched a new blog to encourage awareness, debate and discussion of the topics at the heart of its work.
• First time internet users: Who they are and what they do when they get online | Pew Research Center
• Oboler Award deadline extended | ALA Member News; The deadline for the Eli M. Oboler Memorial Award has been extended until December 15, 2017. Works that have been published in 2016-2017 are eligible to be nominated.

Censorship

• Why did a Texas school district ban the year’s most popular book, The Hate U Give? | Vulture
  • Katy ISD libraries pull book about racism, policy brutality | Chron.com (TX)
  • Katy ISD cites “vulgar ” language for removing young adult novel ‘The Hate U Give’ after parent complaint | Community Impact Newspaper
  • Katy ISD libraries pull book about racism, police brutality | LMT Online; “Katy ISD Superintendent Lance Hindt disputed Thomas’ account on Tuesday. He said the book was temporarily removed after a parent complained about its language at a Nov. 6 board meeting. ‘A review of the book in question shows it to include pervasive vulgarity and racially insensitive language,’ Hindt said. ‘As such, the book has been removed pending further review based solely on its pervasive vulgarity and not its substantive content or the viewpoint expressed.”‘
• Parent wants book about book bans banned | NWF Daily News; “Santa Rosa County Superintendent of Schools Tim Wyrosdick says he will not ban Ray Bradbury’s ‘Fahrenheit 451’ from the school curriculum despite a Milton mother’s request that it be re-evaluated.”
• Coronado students protest alleged censorship | ABC 10 News; “Coronado Middle School journalism students are protesting alleged censorship after, they say, they were forced to cancel a news segment in their student broadcast called “In the News”. The segment covers national and international headlines. “
• New Yorkers call for removal of Met painting that ‘sexualizes’ girl | New York Post
  •  New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is refusing to remove an offensive painting | The Verdict
  • Demanding that galleries get rid of ‘offensive’ works is censorship of the worst kind | Metro
  • Has #metoo gone too far? The case against censoring art | Newsweek
• Texas prisons ban over 10,000 books. An Israeli diplomat wants to know why Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” is allowed |  The Texas Tribune
• Florida could expand challenges to textbooks | Orlando Sentinel
  • Commentary: Book banning – a crusade for Florida’s simplest minds | Orlando Sentinel
• Adult content policies: A textbook case of private censorship | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Privacy

• Libraries and the fight for privacy | HuffPost
• Alameda County library still doesn’t know how many patrons were hacked | East Bay Times
• The White House just bought four more months for NSA reauthorization | The Verge
• Warrantless surveillance can continue even if law expires, officials say | The New York Times
• Democratic senators question privacy, security of Facebook’s ‘Messenger Kids’ | The Hill
• These Are the Technology Firms Lining Up To Build Trump’s ‘Extreme Vetting’ Program | The Intercept
• Dummy Christmas CCTV camera for kids is a real lump of coal | IAPP Privacy Perspectives

See this week’s additional privacy news and updates on the Choose Privacy Week blog.

Access

• Can I see your papers? No! | Illinois Times; “A copy of A Survey Of The Ishams In England And America: Eight Hundred And Fifty Years of History and Genealogy is in the wind. A copy owned by the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum has gone missing after being loaned to another library, and ALPLM officials say it’s this sort of thing that has helped prompt a decision to stop sending materials to other libraries via interlibrary loans.”
• Jail inmate sues to get access to legal materials | Marietta Times
• That all may read: A snapshot of the National Library Service for the Blind & Physically Handicapped | Knowledge Quest
• Making a school library more accessible for students with special needs | Knowledge Quest
• Library lending service Hoopla adds Marvel Comics | Variety

Net Neutrality and Broadband Access

• Inside the opposition to a net neutrality repeal | The New York Times
• FCC chairman calls Silicon Valley a bunch of hypocrites on Net Neutrality | Fast Company
• The FCC’s net neutrality plan may have even bigger ramifications in light of this obscure court case | Washington Post
• Millions of net neutrality comments were faked. Turns out mine was one | USA Today
  • Democrats call for net neutrality vote delay amid fake comment controversy | Fortune
  • FCC won’t delay vote, says net neutrality supporters are “desperate” | Ars Technica
• Religious leaders, celebrities call for net neutrality ahead of nationwide protests | Forbes
• ISP disclosures about data caps and fees eliminated by net neutrality repeal | Ars Technica

Hate Speech and Hate Crimes

• Walmart pulls Rope. Tree. Journalist. T-shirt from site | AP News
• Jews have been the target of most hate crimes this year, Chicago police data shows | Medill Reports Chicago

Free Press, Social Media, and Fake News

• Trust, Democracy and Media, and the Evolving Role of Digital Platforms and First Amendment Rights | Medium
• The Return of the Techno-Moral Panic | New York Times Magazine
• The fake news culprit no one wants to identify: You | Wired

Academic Freedom and Campus Speech

• Chinese power ‘may lead to global academic censorship crisis’ | Times Higher Education
• UNC must lead in free speech | The Robesonian
• National security, the assault on science, and academic freedom | AAUP

First Amendment and Free Speech

• The two clashing meanings of free speech | The Atlantic
• Free-speech absolutists aren’t protecting democracy. They might even be endangering it. | Washington Post
• Kennedy seems conflicted in Supreme Court wedding cake case | Washington Post
  • Supreme Court seems headed toward a terrible decision for LGBT Americans | Rolling Stone
• Public school athletes can protest during the Pledge of Allegiance | Newseum
• Judge Skeptical of Archdiocese Challenge to Transit Christmas Ad Policy | National Law Journal

Around the Web

• How the index card cataloged the world | The Atlantic
• Sex, plagiarism and spyware. This is not your average copyright complaint | The New York Times
• Europe needs to save itself from internet upload filters | Motherboard
• John Green is my metaphor for intellectual freedom | OIF Blog
• An intellectual freedom wish list | OIF Blog
• Residents sue Escondido over library outsourcing | Library Journal

International Issues

• Cancelling book signing infringes on free speech: Nova Scotia MLA | Times-Colonist
• Defiant artists cry foul, vow not to be silenced | The Malaysian Insight
• Apple CEO backs China’s vision of an ‘open’ internet as censorship reaches new heights | Washington Post
• Hundreds of Germany Universities set to lose access to Elsevier journals | Nature
• Lawyers ask UN to help cartoonist detained in Equatorial Guinea | Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
• Egypt’s war on books | The Atlantic

ALA News

• Applications available for ALA Awards and Grants
• Get your digital life decoded – a LITA webinar Tuesday, December 12, 1-2:30 p.m. Central
• Academic library workers invited to free dialogue and deliberation workshop at Midwinter 2018

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