Highlights

• ALA responds to concerns about recent efforts to exclude materials; “The American Library Association has long affirmed that any alteration, deletion, or editing of materials held by a library or archives, when done for the purpose of avoiding controversy or concealing the truth, is an act of censorship that is inconsistent with ALA’s core values.”
• Not quite banned: Soft censorship that makes LGBTQIA+ stories disappear | School Library Journal

Censorship

• LCSD1 committee unanimously votes to keep book in schools | Wyoming News; follow-up on Drama by Telgemeier
• Drag Queen Story Hour nixed due to anti-LGBTQ outcry | Advocate
• Librarians could face charges for ‘age-inappropriate’ material under proposal | New York Times
  • Drag Queen Story Hour prompts Missouri lawmaker to propose bill that could charge librarians | Chicago Tribune
• At Seattle Public Library, 2 arrested at event called anti-trans | Seattle Times
• Some don’t like drag queens reading to kids at Pocatello library | Idaho State Journal
• Local librarians already have book review process, criticize oversight committee bill | Northwest Missourian
• Utah lawmaker proposes warning label for pornography | Associated Press

Privacy and Cybersecurity

• Facial Recognition Moves Into a New Front: Schools | New York Times
• Researchers Find ‘Anonymized’ Data Is Even Less Anonymous Than We Thought | Vice
• Total Surveillance Is Not What America Signed Up For | New York Times
• Lawmakers face a dilemma in battle of Utah driver license privacy vs. cancer research | Salt Lake Tribune
• FTC commissioner: Antitrust enforcement isn’t answer to tech privacy concerns | Wall Street Journal
• About half of Americans are OK with DNA testing companies sharing user data with law enforcement | Pew Research Center
• Amazon Ring now lets users opt out of receiving police video requests | Ars Technica

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

Access

• Academic publishing, Open Access, and the Trump administration | Intellectual Freedom Blog
• Who Should Control the Internet’s .Org Addresses? | Wired
• Reading Levels Unfairly Label Learners, Say Critics. And Then There’s the Research. | School Library Journal
• The difficulty of ‘information wants to be free!’ | Knowledge Quest
• Downloading public court documents costs a dime a page—is that legal? | Ars Technica

Net Neutrality & Broadband

• What the Iowa caucuses mean for getting Iowa online | The Verge
• Ajit Pai’s “surprise” change makes it harder to get FCC broadband funding | Ars Technica
• Opinion: Closing the digital divide is critical for the vitality of rural America | The Hill
• FCC data fails to count 21 million people without broadband, study finds | Ars Technica

Academic Freedom & Campus Speech

• University of Montana rebukes Foundation’s censorship attempt | Missoulian
• EFF Lawsuit Ends Censorship Against PETA on Public University’s Facebook Page | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Fake News, Free Press, Social Media

• The Billion-Dollar Disinformation Campaign to Reelect the President | Atlantic
• Did Fox News edit an interview at Trump’s request? Chris Wallace says no | New York Times
• The US election will test social media censorship to breaking point | Telecoms.com
• What it takes to get a hate page off Facebook: A letter from the state AG | Ars Technica
• Facebook aims to push back on censorship, even if that brings backlash | The Hour

First Amendment & Free Speech

• Free-Speech Case Over Patron’s Arrest At The Kansas City Public Library Finally Comes To An End | NPR
• Campus at a crossroads: Free speech, truth, and democracy in an election year| PEN America
• Focus on when the First Amendment protects—and when it doesn’t | Freedom Forum Institute
• Free Speech Q&A: Andrew Yang | PEN America
• Free Speech Q&A: Bernie Sanders | PEN America
• Free Speech Q&A: Elizabeth Warren | PEN America
• Video of library arrest sparks outcry | Santa Barbara Independent

Around the Web

• What Public Libraries Need To Know About the Coronavirus | Library Journal
• Library Freedom Institute wants you! | Intellectual Freedom Blog
• Iowa’s lesson: Political parties are not as good as government officials at counting votes | ProPublica
• American Dirt: ‘Cancel culture’ embraces book burning in the digital age | The Hill
  • #DignidadLiteraria and Macmillan Meet, Publisher Commits to More Latinx Representation | Library Journal
  • American Booksellers for Free Expression Comments on “American Dirt” | American Booksellers Association
• Why you shouldn’t censor your teens reading (even the sex and violence) | Washington Post
• A book so far ahead of its time, it took 87 years to find a publisher | New York Times
• Barnes & Noble pulls controversial ‘Diverse Editions’ campaign after backlash against ‘tone-deaf’ redesigned book covers | Business Insider
• Even noxious ideas need airing—censorship only makes them stronger | Economist

International Issues

• Proposals spark clash over filtering the internet | Newsroom Preparing for Brexit: Are privacy pros ready? | IAPP
• China’s leaders call for more censorship on coronavirus | Axios
• Anger over the Wuhan virus is sparking pushback against censorship in China. It won’t last. | CNN International
• Meet the Chinese crowdsourcers fighting coronavirus censorship | MIT Technology Review
• Library’s new door policy leaving homeless out in the cold, councillor says | CBC News
• Journalists see specter of censorship in Ukraine’s proposed media laws | Voice of America

ALA News

• K-8 libraries invited to apply for $5,000 award recognizing outstanding programming
• New ALA program will help libraries address climate crisis
• Voting & Elections Toolkit
• United for Libraries’ February Monthly Member Forum to focus on highlights from the United for Libraries Institute: Trustees, Friends, and Foundations; February 12
• ALA releases updated Libraries’ Guide to the 2020 Census
• Ready to Code Opens Call for Applications: Mini-Grants for Digital Skills Programs, due February 14
• Games and Gaming Round Table announces Game On! Grants; deadline March 1
• Application open for 2020 ALA Leadership Institute; deadline March 9
• ALA seeks proposals for 2020 Diversity Research Grants; due April 15

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