Intellectual Freedom News 3/12/2021
Highlights
- ALA Executive Board Supports APALA in Recognizing and Condemning Ongoing anti-Asian Hate Crimes | American Libraries; “It is also incumbent upon us as library and information workers to combat cultural bias and bigotry by promoting diversity in our collections, programming, policies, and hiring practices, ensuring that our diverse communities see themselves represented on our library shelves, in our offerings, and among our ranks. The Executive Board calls on ALA members, library institutions, and library users to join them in publicly condemning anti-Asian American and Pacific Islander racism.”
Censorship
- Leander ISD says it removed 6 books from reading lists, drafting new policy regarding ‘inappropriate’ books | KVUE (TX)
- In Leander, efforts to offer more inclusive school reading lists run into headwinds | Austin American-Statesman
- Iowa Senate passes bill prohibiting ‘diverse concepts’ training at public schools | KCCI-TV (IA)
- History Repeated: the Trials of Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five | Intellectual Freedom Blog
- The Situation on the Ground in Lafayette, Louisiana | Intellectual Freedom Blog
Privacy & Cybersecurity
- Scholars Under Surveillance: How Campus Police Use High Tech to Spy on Students | EFF
- Border Face Scan Rule Stirs Civil Rights Groups to Press Biden | Bloomberg Law
- How Data Trusts Can Protect Privacy | MIT Technology Review
- Full Fourth Circuit Split on Baltimore Aerial Police Surveillance | Courthouse News Service
- Surveillance camera hack exposes video from police, prisons, schools | GCN
- Sammy Brown Library installs privacy booth | The Panola Watchman
More privacy news is available at the Voices for Privacy blog.
First Amendment, Free Speech, & Civil Liberties
- ‘Catastrophic’ number of state bills target transgender youth, advocates say | ABC News
- Supreme Court Backs Georgia College Student’s Free Speech Suit | The New York Times
- Iowa Reporter Found Not Guilty By Jury After Arrest At Black Lives Matter Protest | NPR
- Court Dismisses Trump Campaign’s Defamation Suit Against New York Times | The New York Times
- ACLU Warns of Surveillance Network Bias Against Minorities | Governing
- Santa Monica City Council to Vote on Restricting Protest Activities | Santa Monica Mirror
- Justice Department’s Stance on Policing Faces Scrutiny as Floyd Murder Trial Begins | The Wall Street Journal
- Lawsuit Claims Springfield PD Violated Civil Rights of BLM Protesters | KLCC NPR
- Biden Justice Department Sides Against Free Speech Advocates in Big First Amendment Case | Reason
- A Mexican restaurant in Texas kept its mask rule. People threatened to call ICE on the staff. | The Washington Post
- Connecticut-based #iamnotavirus targets anti-Asian bias by introducing Asian Americans and their stories | Hartford Courant
- Women Take To The Streets Of NYC Demanding Equal Rights Amendment Be Added To U.S. Constitution | CBS New York
- LGBTQ rights bill ignites debate over religious liberty | ABC News
- EFF to Supreme Court: States Face High Burden to Justify Forcing Groups to Turn Over Donor Names | EFF
- Reporters Committee Argues in Fourth Circuit for First Amendment Access to New Complaints | Courthouse News Service
- NM civil rights bill advances to full Senate | Albuquerque Journal
Access
- Libraries gain record increases for IMLS, E-rate in federal relief plan | ALA
- A Wisconsin Company Will Provide Drone-Powered Internet Service To Rural Northwoods Students | Wisconsin Public Radio
- The Ever-Growing Challenges of Getting Books into Prisons | Book Riot
- Storytime Lets Fathers Form Bonds From Behind Bars | The New York Times
- Security News This Week: Utah’s ‘Porn Filter’ Law Passes the State Legislature | WIRED
- Want to borrow that e-book from the library? Sorry, Amazon won’t let you. | The Washington Post
Net Neutrality & Broadband Access
- ALA’s Broadband Resolution and the FCC’s Emergency Broadband Benefit Program | Intellectual Freedom Blog
- Biden Is Assembling a Big Tech Antitrust All-Star Team | WIRED
- How California’s Net Neutrality Law Can Inform Federal Digital Privacy Policymaking | Inside Sources
Academic Freedom & Campus Speech
- National academics speak out against Iowa proposal to eliminate tenure | The Gazette
- Senate approves bill to tighten controls on China-funded Confucius Institutes on U.S. university campuses | CNBC
- US Senate passes bill to control Confucius Institutes on college campuses | Jurist
- Supreme Court — over John Roberts’ sole dissent — rules in favor of student in First Amendment case | CNN
- A New Group Promises to Protect Professors’ Free Speech | Chronicle of Higher Ed
- Supreme Court sides with student in first amendment case against Georgia Gwinnett College | CBS 46
- Free speech bill requires First Amendment training for educators | Times-Republican
- Academic Freedom Index 2020 | EurekAlert!
Social Media
- GOP pushes bills to allow social media ‘censorship’ lawsuits | Minneapolis Star Tribune
- Iowa Senate committee advances bill to penalize social media companies that censor speech | SouthernMinn.com
- Arkansas Bill Addresses “Unfair” Social Media Censorship | InfoSecurity
- Twitter sues Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, asks court to halt his investigation of the social media company | The Texas Tribune
- Tech’s Legal Shield Appears Likely to Survive as Congress Focuses on Details | The New York Times
Copyright
- Images of Slaves Are Property of Harvard, Not a Descendant, Judge Rules | New York Times
- 11th Circuit Sides With Medical Blog in Copyright Fight | Courthouse News Service
- Congress Creates a Small Claims Court for Copyright Infringement (The CASE Act) | JDSupra
- Fungible Banksy: NFTs, Copyright and Digital Art Collide with the Burning of Morons | JDSupra
- Hollywood Coalition Asks Congress to Strengthen Copyright Laws | The Hollywood Reporter
Journalism, Media, & Disinformation
- Gendered disinformation is a national security problem | Brookings
- How a racialized disinformation campaign ties itself to The 1619 Project | Columbia Journalism Review
- ‘We are going to have to save ourselves,’ Black community fights deadly COVID vaccine conspiracy theories | USA Today
- From vote to virus, misinformation campaign targets Latinos | AP News
- Russian Disinformation Campaign Aims to Undermine Confidence in Pfizer, Other Covid-19 Vaccines, U.S. Officials Say | The Wall Street Journal
- Black and Hispanic Communities Grapple With Vaccine Misinformation | The New York Times
- Sexism’s Toll on Journalism | Reporters Without Borders
- Nebraska high school journalist refuses to back down, publishes her censored article on Confederate flags and racism at school in local paper | Student Press Law Center
- What should we do about the algorithmic amplification of disinformation? | Columbia Journalism Review
- Election disinformation happens all over the world. These journalists are combatting it. | Committee to Protect Journalists
- Epoch Media Casts Wider Net to Spread Its Message Online | The New York Times
- MIT Libraries statement on disinformation | MIT
International News
- Nomadland Censored in China Following Nationalist Backlash to Chloe Zhao | ScreenRant
- Russia tried to slow down Twitter and accidentally broke the internet in the country. Here’s what happened. | Business Insider
- Will Hong Kong’s Free Press Survive? | Columbia Journalism Review
- Cambodia’s internet gateway could intensify surveillance and censorship | GlobalVoices
- German court suspends surveillance of far-right AfD, for now | Deutsche Welle
- Privacy Advocates Raise Concerns About Australia’s Proposed Online Safety Act | FindBiometrics
- Germany is main target of Russian disinformation, EU says | Reuters
- Fake news makes Czechs vaccine-wary despite COVID-19 crisis | Borneo Bulletin
- China seems to have censored the term ‘stock market’ from social media searches after stocks posted their longest losing streak in 3 months | Business Insider
- India’s punishing new social media rules could be a nightmare for the tech giants | Fast Company
- Factually: Covid disinformation turning up in the mail | Poynter
- Pakistani court orders TikTok banned over ‘obscene content’ | Al Jazeera
Around the Web
- Librarians are debating how to handle the Dr. Seuss furore — but say the books will stay on the shelves for now | Business Insider
- Saying It Louder for the People in the Back: Kids NEED Queer Books | Book Riot
- Four Librarians receive national awards for achievement, distinguished service | Penn State News
- IFRT Member Spotlight – Michael Blackwell | Intellectual Freedom Blog
- Karin Klein: Ban doesn’t reflect well on eBay | Herald & Review
- How to Put Out Democracy’s Dumpster Fire | The Atlantic
- Controversy arises at Eanes ISD after students were read book centered on transgender boy | Community Impact Newspaper
- Dail Barbour reinstated to library board after legal wrangling. What’s next? | Jackson Hole News and Guide
- Publisher Halts Promotion of Cuomo Book, Citing Nursing Homes Inquiry | The New York Times
- Time-Out for Google | Inside Higher Ed
- Disney+ removes ‘Peter Pan,’ ‘Dumbo’ from children’s profiles due to negative stereotypes | ABC News
- Amazon stops selling books that describe being LGBTQ+ as an illness | The Hill
ALA News
- ALA Executive Board Supports APALA in Recognizing and Condemning Ongoing anti-Asian Hate Crimes | American Libraries
- ALA Elections now open – cast your vote today!
- Stanley Tucci and Areli Morales to appear as featured speakers at ALA Annual Conference & Exhibition (Virtual)
- Call for Volunteers for New Sustainability Committee
- AASL Releases Position Statement on School Library Supervisors
- AASL Launches Final Snapshot Survey for 2020-2021 School Year
ALA Publishing
- An introduction to visual research methods
- New from ACRL – “Academic Library Job Descriptions: CLIPP #46”
- Oliver’s updated introduction to RDA
Awards and Grants
eCourses and Webinars
- Core Webinar: Building Teams that Work
- Core Webinar: Overview of XML Metadata Quality Assessment Tools
- Core Webinar: Core e-Forums: What Are They and Why Should I Care?
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One thought on “Intellectual Freedom News 3/12/2021”
In your 3/12/21 newsletter, which I always look forward to receiving, I read the article ‘Iowa Senate passes bill prohibiting ‘diverse concepts’ training at public schools’ from KCCI-TV (IA). I also read the bill referenced. After reading the bill I asked KCCI to correct the article, and they did. It effects the headline as well. The bill never uses the term “diverse concepts”. Instead it uses the term “divisive concepts” . The bill also states that nothing in it should be construed to prohibit organizations from promoting diversity and inclusion as well as respect for all their members. Unfortunately it looks like they retracted more of their reporting as well, but I didn’t save the full article in its original. The bill is worth reading in its entirety. Its a bit of a mixed bag, and, in my opinion, self contradictory at times. However, it re-affirms full First Amendment protections to all Iowa educators, including protection of their employment, for any opinions they may express. Its worth a read, and perhaps a more detailed article on the bill. I’d ask that you change the link on this site to reflect the new headline. The old headline gave a misleading impression about the bill. Thanks.