Intellectual Freedom News 3/04/2022
Highlights
Dolly Parton Fans Slam Lawmaker for Asking if Book Program Is ‘Appropriate’ | Newsweek
Upcoming Events
- ALA Virtual Membership Meeting on Thursday, March 17, 2022 at 1pm CT / 11:00am PT
Censorship
- Conservative web sites are fueling book bans in Texas and across the country | Houston Chronicle
- Quest to remove ‘pornography’ has GOP Texas House members asking school leaders to take books pledge | Dallas Morning News
- Oklahoma AG will no longer investigate books considered ‘obscene’ by parents | FOX23
- ‘Bless Me, Ultima’ under review in Oklahoma. Here’s why. | Las Cruces Sun-News
- Campbell County Public Library board rejects two more book challenges | Sublette Examiner (WY)
- Central Bucks school board reviews library policy | Bucks County Herald (PA)
- Elizabethtown Area school board continues discussion of book ban and potential budget cuts | Lancaster Online (PA)
- Country star compares teachers to pedophiles in speech backing Tennessee book ban | Yahoo! News
- Students sued when a school district restricted several books. The school board reinstated one novel | KRDO
- Polk parents, educators speak about book bans as review committees are formed | Ledger (FL)
- Ban these books? Committee in Indian River County examining 156 titles for pornography, CRT | Treasure Coast Palm (FL)
- Parents take battle to ban books in school libraries to school board meeting | CBS 12 News (FL)
- Indian River County School Board refuses to ban most of the 156 books on group’s hit list | Treasure Coast Palm (FL)
- Governor releases report on “inherently divisive” school policies | WDBJ (VA)
- Youngkin administration updates efforts to remove ‘divisive concepts’ from education | 13 News Now (VA)
- Her senior recital was on historically censored songs. Then her school censored her | NPR
- Residents voice concerns with [Ridgeland] library issues | Northside Sun (MS)
- Age restriction placed on ‘Gender Queer: A Memoir’ in school library | Forest Scout (IL)
- Texas civil rights groups and education equity organizations demand Granbury ISD return removed books and reaffirm inclusion | ACLU Texas
- Texas continues to remove LGBTQ suicide prevention resources from state websites | NBC News
- Floyd County schools to mark “mature” books, let parents decide if their children can check them | Rome News Tribune (GA)
- Union County group stages ‘read-in’ to fight proposed changes to book policy | WCNC (NC)
- Salina Public Schools decides not to ban “All Boys Aren’t Blue” from the school library | Salina Journal (KS)
- School board responds to call for book ban | Cape May County Herald (NJ)
- Amid outrcy over ‘pornographic material,’ Canyons School District revamps its book review policy | KSL.com (UT)
- Sexually explicit books offend NWA parents | Axios NW Arkansas
- Wake County leaders continue to evaluate process of removing books, materials from libraries | CBS17
- Concerns about censorship and intellectual freedom were raised by group of Katy ISD students | Pioneer Table
- Savannah-Chatham County school board discusses library book selection process | WTOC (GA)
- Westerly RI school district embroiled in a debate over memoir, Gender Queer | Providence Journal
Privacy & Cybersecurity
- At least 22 states have consumer privacy legislation pending — Will 2022 be the year for more state privacy laws? | JD Supra
- Jobless in the pandemic? You may be in a facial recognition database. | WRAL
- Remote learning accidentally introduced a new danger for LGBTQ students | Slate
- Biden’s State of the Union remarks put children’s privacy front and center | IAPP
- After George Floyd’s murder, police built a secretive surveillance machine that lives on | MIT Technology Review
- Fast-Growing Company Flock is Building a New AI-Driven Mass-Surveillance System | ACLU
More privacy news is available at the Voices for Privacy blog.
First Amendment, Free Speech, & Civil Liberties
- ICE settles with immigrant rights leader who sued over First Amendment violations | Intercept
- Washington state school district bans student protest | National Coalition Against Censorship
- First Amendment trumps statutory ban on trademark registration | JD Supra
- ACLU, Lambda Legal sue to block Texas from investigating parents who support their transgender kids | ACLU Texas
- Regulating the public square when it’s at the library’s front door | Lakeland Now (FL)
- RI Supreme Court says people serving life in prison can no longer be considered ‘civilly dead’ | Providence Journal
Academic Freedom & Campus Speech
- Student journalists don’t want to be censored by their school | Hawai’i Public Radio
- Senate cuts UW’s Gender Studies program | Wyoming Public Media
- Creative differences or censorship in UNC Chapel Hill show? | Inside Higher Ed
- Franklinton legislator proposes law to block porn on college campuses | Louisiana Illuminator
Legislation
- Idaho librarians could face jail time for lending “harmful” books | Boise Public Radio
- At least 7 state legislatures are proposing ‘book ban’ legislation, prompting concern from civil liberty advocates | Business Insider
- State laws targeting critical race theory may stifle the full telling of American history | Athens Banner-Herald
- New transparency bills would force teachers to post instructional materials | The Washington Post
- The New Restrictions Conservative State Lawmakers are Pushing on Transgender Kids | Route 50
- Controversial education bills head to full Senate | CBS12 (FL)
- Bill banning ‘pornographic or indecent’ books at Utah schools passes committee | Salt Lake Tribune
- Indiana lawmakers still eyeing education bills left with uncertain futures in final weeks of session | WFYI (IN)
- Senate panel increases proposed criminal penalties for ‘obscene’ school books | Iowa Capitol Dispatch
- Johnson County teachers push back against avalanche of K-12 education reform bills | Kansas Reflector
- Kentucky Senate passes anti-CRT bill, would dictate how U.S. history can be taught in classrooms | LEX18
- Virginia lawmakers give parents a say on sexually explicit classroom materials | Virginia Mercury
- Oklahoma legislative committee advances school library book ban bill | Oklahoman
- Tennessee Republicans back bill to criminally charge educators, ban books with alleged ‘obscene materials’ | WKRN
- AZ Senate Republicans advance bills to increase scrutiny of school library books, access to classrooms | Tucson Sentinel
Social Media
- Trump’s social media app facing censorship charges, removing users off the platform | News18
- Russia to restrict Facebook access for ‘censoring’ its media | Reuters
- Facebook, Twitter remove disinformation accounts targeting Ukranians | NBC News
- Privacy and Child Endangerment are Major Congressional Motivators for Regulating Big Tech | Nextgov
Net Neutrality & Broadband Access
Information Literacy & Disinformation
- Russian disinformation, propaganda ramp up as conflict in Ukraine grows | NBC News
- Social media platforms on the defensive as Russian-based disinformation about Ukraine spreads | Politico
- Sorting fact, disinformation after Russian attack on Ukraine | AP
- Meta says it’s shut down a pro-Russian disinformation network, warns of a social media hacking operation | CNN
- Russia blocks Echo of Moscow and Dozhd TV, restricts social media access | Committee to Protect Journalists
- Disinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine is a problem. Stanford researchers are trying to solve it | Stanford
- Putin targets lots of Americans with disinformation. One example? Anti-vaccine groups | Los Angeles Times
International News
- China censors appear to ban anti-Russian media content on Ukraine invasion | Newsweek
- Russia restricts Facebook access claiming platform censors Russian media amid Ukraine conflict | USA Today
- Russia: Kremlin censors media and disperses protesters opposed to Ukraine invasion | Amnesty International
- Twitter says it is being restricted in Russia | Euro News
- EU bans RT, Sputnik over Ukraine disinformation | Reuters
- How Ukrainians are bypassing Russian censorship to share news of the war | France 24
Around the Web
- Activism grows nationwide in response to school book bans | ABC News
- Virginia Education Department rescinds diversity, equity programs in response to Youngkin’s order | Washington Post
- Theses students helped overturn a book ban. Now they’re pushing for a more inclusive education. | Washington Post
- YWCA hosts drag queen story time, educating kids on diversity & acceptance, drawing protest | Hanover Evening Sun (NY)
- The battle for the soul of the library | New York Times
- KC-area library leader quits after trustees rejected diversity, condemned LGBT program | Kansas City Star
- MCPL library director quits after trustees reject diversity | Kansas City Star
- Should libraries be safe spaces? | WBUR
- School board sued for discriminatory policies, indoctrinating students with CRT | Christianity Daily
- Report: People worried about masks, critical race theory barrage Minnesota schools with costly records requests | MPR News
- Zoombombers’ disrupt library Black History Month event | Brookings Register
- Critical race theory and the banning of Black authors in schools, libraries, and prisons | Times Weekly
- Springfield school board candidates weigh in on critical race theory, efforts to ban it | Springfield News-Leader (MO)
- History professors discuss the effects of book banning in schools | Scribe
- These students are passing out ‘banned’ books on school property to raise awareness | WUSA9 (VA)
- Amid push to ban books, library commissioners brush up on the basics | Austin Monitor
- Opinion: Mayor Bronson should hire a real library director | Anchorage Daily News
- Proposed Iowa legislation defames work of school librarians | Telegraph Herald (IA)
- Some Barnes & Noble stores add ‘banned book’ sections amid recent controversy | WFXR
- Georgia high school students speak out against “classroom censorship” bills | Revolutionary Report
- President of the Ukranian Library Association to the world: “We are at the forefront of the fight against fakes, misinformation, and cyber threats!” | School Library Journal
- Local libraries are being targeted by ‘1st amendment auditors,’ book challenges | Michigan Advance
- Several Texas Republicans against “critical race theory” advance in State Board of Education primary races | Texas Tribune
- First, the book-banners came for CRT and LGBTQ. Now they’re censoring women’s history | Salon
- Commentary: Censorship stirs emotions, and fuels interest in banned books | Fredericksburg Free Lance Star
ALA News
- ALA stands with Ukrainian library community; “The American Library Association and its divisions support our Ukrainian colleagues and will work with the global library community to answer the appeal from the Ukrainian Library Association to provide accurate information as a means to support democracy and freedom of expression. ALA has adopted into its policies Article 19 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, which states, “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers.” ALA continues to encourage our members to help raise public consciousness regarding the many ways in which disinformation and media manipulation are used to mislead public opinion in all spheres of life, and further encourages librarians to facilitate this awareness with collection development, library programming and public outreach that draws the public’s attention to those alternative sources of information dedicated to countering and revealing the disinformation.”
- Actor and author John Cho and journalist and author Maria Hinojosa will present at the 2022 Annual Conference & Exhibition in Washington, D.C.
- Libraries Transforming Communities to distribute more than $7 million in grants to support small and rural library accessibility efforts, call for Grant Advisor RFPs now open
- Call for Proposals for 2022 ALA Annual Conference & Exhibition Poster Sessions
eLearning
- United for Libraries to present ‘Keeping Governance on Track’ webinars March 29 and 31
- More eLearning opportunites
Publishing
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