Intellectual Freedom News 3/22/2021
Highlights
- First Annual IFRT Meeting
- Freedom to Read Foundation to Offer an ALA Conference Scholarship through the Gordon M. Conable Fund
- Call for Nominations 2021 Freedom to Read Foundation Roll of Honor
Censorship
- LGBTQ+ Book Challenges Continue As Texas Parents Object to “Call Me Max” | School Library Journal
- English Teachers Rally Against Graphic Novel Bans in Texas School District | CBR
- PCHS to add diversity and multi-cultural education | Pocahontas Times (Challenge to The Hate U Give)
- (Statement) Books, Diversity, and Multi-Cultural Education | Pocahontas Times
- House Republicans protest more books on Navy reading list | Fox News
- Park City students fight online filters for LGBTQ searches | AP
Privacy & Cybersecurity
- Privacy Laws Begin to Ripple Across the States Following the California Consumer Privacy Act | JDSupra
- NYPL’s privacy leader on safeguarding patron trust, transparency | IAPP Privacy Advisor
- Little-Known TALON Network of Surveillance Cameras Now Blankets Much of the United States | CPO Magazine
- Your Face Is Not Your Own | The New York Times
- Lenore Skenazy: Kids Under Surveillance | MagicValley
- US House to examine bill setting new standards for biometric, digital privacy rights | BiometricUpdate.com
- Students Sue Online Exam Proctoring Service ProctorU for Biometrics Violations Following Data Breach | Law Street
- What If Colleges Treated Students as Data Users, Not Just Data Points? | EdSurge
More privacy news is available at the Voices for Privacy blog.
First Amendment, Free Speech, & Civil Liberties
- Pro-Trans Rights Student Shares Her Story of Being Censored in School | Rolling Stone
- Equality Act is creating a historic face-off between religious exemptions and LGBTQ rights | The Washington Post
- Georgia business community expresses concern over voting restrictions | The Washington Post
- Anti-Asian hate hearing gets emotional: ‘We will not let you take our voice away’ | ABC News
- Congress Must Protect Asian Americans from Xenophobic Violence | The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
- Kingsport homeowner defends profanity-laced flags, First Amendment rights | WJHL
- Government Censorship Is the Worst Cancel Culture of All | Reason
- The Lawfare Podcast: Content Moderation and the First Amendment for Dummies | Lawfare
- US Government Response to Pandemic Posed Fundamental Civil Liberties Issues | Voice of America
- De Jure and De Facto Censorship: Why We Need to Be Concerned About Both | Aero
Access
- Sacramento Might be Undergoing a Broadband Policy Reboot | EFF
- American Monopoly: Amazon’s Anti-Competitive Behavior is in Violation of Antitrust Laws | American Booksellers Association
Net Neutrality & Broadband Access
- AT&T halting some free data services in response to California law | Reuters
- City leaders call for end to ‘digital redlining’ | Smart Cities Dive
- There has to be an accounting’: Former AT&T lawyer says company systemically overcharged neediest schools | The Washington Post
Academic Freedom & Campus Speech
- Ethics and Diversity Course on Hold | Inside Higher Ed
- Why Did a University Suspend Its Mandatory Diversity Course? | The Chronicle of Higher Education
- University of Virginia, founded by Thomas ‘Blood of Patriots and Tyrants’ Jefferson, orders student’s sign removed because it ‘advocates’ violence | FIRE
- Is ‘cancel culture’ real on Florida college campuses? | Tampa Bay Times
- When Academic Bullies Claim the Mantle of Free Speech | The Chronicle of Higher Education
- Stanford’s long history in supporting displaced academics during crisis, conflict | Stanford Today
Social Media
- Massive Facebook study on users’ doubt in vaccines finds a small group appears to play a big role in pushing the skepticism | The Washington Post
- How Facebook got addicted to spreading misinformation | MIT Technology Review
- Exclusive: YouTube removed 30,000 videos with COVID misinformation | AXIOS
- Facebook to Label Vaccine Posts to Combat COVID-19 Misinfo | U.S. News & World Report
- New Facebook tool aims to connect people to vaccines — but disinformation is rampant | Los Angeles Times
- Advocates press Facebook to combat Spanish-language disinformation | The Hill
- ABA Fact Check: Despite Controversy, First Amendment Does Not Cover Social Media Platforms | Law & Crime
- Iowa Senate passes bill outlawing tax breaks, contracts for tech companies that ‘censor’ speech | Des Moines Register
- Don’t Delete Art Releases Guidelines for Artists to Avoid Social Media Censorship | National Coalition Against Censorship
Copyright
- You Can Take My Copyright Out of My Cold, Dead Hands. But Not Sooner | WIRED
- Column: A lawsuit aims to stop private firms from claiming copyrights on California laws | Los Angeles Times
- YouTube tests copyright checks during upload to stop you from getting your channel banned | XDA Developers
- Twitch is making it easier for streamers to deal with copyright claims | PC Gamer
- NFTs for Copyrights: Why Non-Fungible Tokens Could Transform Who Gets Paid from Music Rights, and How | Music Business Worldwide
- Do copyright laws really protect the work of artists? | UNSW Sydney Newsroom
Journalism, Media, & Disinformation
- Nebraska lawmakers debate bill to give First Amendment protections to student journalists | Star Herald
- Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research and The Boston Globe’s Opinion team are collaborating to resurrect and reimagine The Emancipator, the first antislavery newspaper in the United States | Boston Globe
- Spyware and Press Freedom | Committee to Protect Journalists
- Disinformation goes to Hollywood: four lessons from journalism | First Draft
- Most People Don’t Actively Seek to Share Fake News | Scientific American
- Report: ‘Haphazard’ social media policy updates ‘falling short’ against disinformation | The Hill
- Defying rules, anti-vaccine accounts thrive on social media | ABC News
- Amazon Is Pushing Readers Down A “Rabbit Hole” Of Conspiracy Theories About The Coronavirus | BuzzFeed News
- The disinformation threat to diaspora communities in encrypted chat apps | Brookings Institute
- Sunshine Week March 14-20: It’s always your right to know | The Highland County Press
- Sunshine Week: Public records allow Ohioans to ferret out fact, call out fiction | The Columbus Dispatch
- Opinion: Russia’s disinformation campaign will keep rolling, as long as Republicans are gullible enough | The Washington Post
- From gaslighting to “propaganda-condom”: a guide to disinformation slang | The Economist
- Why We (Still) Shouldn’t Censor Misinformation [book review] | Reason
- White supremacist propaganda surged in 2020, report says | AP
International News
- Facebook is cracking down on groups worldwide to slow the spread of political disinformation | CNBC
- The disinformation tactics used by China | BBC News
- Russia Censors Intimate Gay Scenes from ‘Supernova’ | Star Observer
- Melillo calls on government to restore funding for accessible books for Canadians with disabilities | Lake Superior News
- See the clever way an iconic photo publication protested Chinese censorship | Fast Company
- China Punishes Microsoft’s LinkedIn Over Lax Censorship | The New York Times
- Senator Says Censorship in Turkey Raises “Serious Questions” About Facebook’s Commitment to Free Expression | ProPublica
- Hong Kong leader’s art museum comments prompt new censorship fears | CNN
- China Orders No Live Oscars After Hong Kong Protest Film Nomination | Bloomberg
- Turkish social media law consolidates news censorship under ‘right to be forgotten’ | Committee to Protect Journalists
- From Tampa Bay, journalist leads global fight against disinformation | Tampa Bay Times
- The UK Is Secretly Testing a Controversial Web Snooping Tool | WIRED
- Russia’s Failure to Throttle Twitter Isn’t a Sign of Weakness | WIRED
Around the Web
- Censorship of Federal Environmental Agency Websites Under Trump: What We Learned and How to Protect Public Information Moving Forward | Union of Concerned Scientists
- New Jersey district pays $325K in Trump yearbook censorship | WBNG
- A famous act of resistance counsels caution as we address right-wing violence | The Washington Post
- Social justice for toddlers: These new books and programs start the conversation early | The Washington Post
- “Hate Speech” Q&A with Seattle University’s Caitlin Carlson | The Spectator
- After a 28-Year Ban, Alabama Could Allow Yoga in Public Schools | The New York Times
- Online harassment of female journalists is real, and it’s increasingly hard to endure | Washington Post
- Language, Please! Salty Feminist Stitch Book Is Too Much for Michaels. | The New York Times
- The Great Hypocrisy of Right-Wingers Claiming ‘Cancel Culture’ | The Nation
- Ithaka Library Director Survey on Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Antiracism Reveals Disconnects | Library Journal
- The Muppet Show Was More Controversial Than You Might Remember | Mental Floss
- Marjorie Taylor Greene Complains About Muslims Accessing Public Library | Hill Reporter
ALA News
- ALSC announces “A Celebration of Illustration!”
- Nation to celebrate library workers’ contributions, April 6, 2021
- AASL Releases Position Statement on Labeling Practices
ALA Publishing
Awards and Grants
eCourses and Webinars
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