Intellectual Freedom News 3/23/18
March 23, 2018 – Collated by OIF Staff and News Editors
Intellectual Freedom Highlights
Censorship
- ACLU files art censorship lawsuit against the city of New Orleans | The Art Newspaper
- Orange City Library considers new book classification system after outcry over LGBTQ materials | Sioux City Journal (IA)
- A comedian balked at censorship on Loyola’s campus; they cut his mic | Washington Examiner
- After a Comedian Makes an Off-Color Joke, Loyola Chicago Silences His Mic | Chronicle of Higher Education
- Reader’s view: Read the book before passing judgment | Midland Daily News (MI)
- Deleted, suspended, demoted: Censorship, Silicon Valley-style | Aljazeera
- American high school journalists fight school-ordered censorship | WikiTribune
Privacy
- Privacy in Libraries, a LITA webinar series | LITA
- Privacy with Google Analytics | Library Journal
- Omnibus bill contains CLOUD Act, a win for tech and law enforcement | Axios
- Library offers help protecting online privacy | Cornell Chronicle
- Court filing claims Education Dept illegally got SSN data | AP News
- Schools Are Using AI to Check Students’ Social Media for Warning Signs of Violence | Gizmodo
- Student Privacy Laws Have Been Distorted (And That’s a Problem) Education Week
- What your internet service provider knows about you | Marketplace
- Report: Police are now asking Google for data about all mobile devices close to certain crimes | TechCrunch
- Cambridge Analytica and Facebook | Choose Privacy Week (collecting news links)
On March 17 – 18, 2018, the Guardian, the New York Times, and Britain’s Channel Four published stories detailing how Cambridge Analytica employed a third-party researcher to harvest 50 million Facebook users’ profiles for use in political campaigns without the consent of the users. On the CPW blog, we’ve compiled links to those stories, public reaction to the news, and have also provided information about privacy self defense.
See this week’s additional privacy news and updates on the Choose Privacy Week blog.
Net Neutrality and Broadband Access
Access
- A social worker walks into a library | American Libraries
- This Black author was told his book on being a father had no audience, now he’s trying to self-publish | Huffington Post
- HHS strips lesbian, bisexual health content from women’s health website | Politico
- Despite Fire Union Claims, San Antonio Public Libraries have Free Speech Zones | City of San Antonio
Free Press, Social Media, and Fake News
- Controlling the web is the dream (and the nightmare) | Bloomberg
- Fill in the blanks: What’s still missing from the study of fake news? (A whole lot.) | Nieman Journalism Lab
- The Science People See on Social Media | Pew Research Center
- Can a New Approach to Information Literacy Reduce Digital Polarization? | EdSurge
Filters and Internet Access
- How FOSTA Could Give Hollywood the Filters It’s Long Wanted | Electronic Frontier Foundation
- Congress OKs sex-trafficking bill that critics say will “censor the Internet” | Ars Technica
- How a Controversial New Sex-Trafficking Law Will Change the Web | Wired
Academic Freedom and Campus Speech
- Do student protesters have First Amendment rights? | OIF Blog
- Trump says the campus free-speech crisis Is ‘overblown’ | Chronicle of Higher Education
- New Jersey could fund gun violence research at Rutgers – once it clears the academic freedom hurdles | The Inquirer (PA)
- Defend free inquiry: IUP must uphold all students’ rights to expression | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
- People always think students are hostile to speech. They never really are. | Washington Post
- Last fall this scholar defended colonialism. Now he’s defending himself | Chronicle of Higher Education
First Amendment and Free Speech
- Are high schools teaching students to devalue free speech? | Newseum Institute
- The abortion case that’s really about the First Amendment | New York Times
- Some pundits say there’s no campus free speech ‘crisis.’ Here’s why they’re wrong | Reason
- Data shows young people are free speech advocates, but mainstream support for censoring “anti-American” speech is rising | Boing Boing
- SCOTUS Hears Oral Arguments on First Amendment Challenge to Regulation of Crisis Pregnancy Centers | Constitutional Law Prof Blog
- Federal Appeals Court upholds public school’s ‘Christmas Spectacular’ | Education Week
- U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear case on teacher free-speech protection | Education Week
Around the Web
- How Kiera Drake rewrote The Continent | Washington Post; “Keira Drake’s debut was slammed for using racial stereotypes for her characters. Unlike other authors, she rewrote the book.”
- When a bookstore stands against censorship | Literary Hub
- Why the First Amendment is America in a nutshell | Big Think
- Sherman Alexie declines Carnegie Medal; publisher postpones paperback in wake of sexual allegations | Indian Country Media Network
- Banned books, nude photos and fights in parliament … the strange and colourful life of Li Ao | South China Morning Post
- A little bit of queer history repeating | OIF Blog
- What does Confucius say about intellectual freedom? | OIF Blog
International Issues
- Booksellers remove racist and Holocaust denial titles from their websites | The Guardian
- Netizen report: Internet censorship bills loom large over Egypt, South Africa | Slate
- Goodbye, SAPPRFT (but not Chinese censorship) | SupChina
- Spanish publisher subverts court gag by using Don Quixote to recreate banned book | The Guardian
- Turkey gives its aggressive TV censor control over the web | Bloomberg
- Nobody likes Canada’s plan to filter the internet | DSL Reports
- Saudis revamp school curriculum to combat Muslim Brotherhood | The Nation
- Riyadh book fair stall shut down over Muslim Brotherhood books | Gulf News
- Should we ban books denying the Holocaust from high street shops? | The New Statesman
- Egypt censors play ‘Before the Revolution,’ director appeals | Fox
- FPB given huge powers to censor internet by bill – SAFREA | Politics Web (South Africa)
- French court issues mixed ruling in Facebook nudity case | U.S. News & World Report
- Northern Ireland library staff threatened over honouring former Israeli president | Belfast Telegraph
ALA News
- New national study reveals voter perceptions of libraries
- Developing Good Privacy Policies, a free LITA webinar
Subscribe to future issues of Intellectual Freedom News, a free weekly compilation of news delivered to your inbox by the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom, including
- current book challenges in libraries and schools
- articles about privacy, internet filtering and censorship
- ALA activities, conferences and institutes, products, online learning opportunities, awards and grants, international exchanges, and more
- how to get involved and make the most of what ALA offers
You can also find us at Facebook, Twitter, and online. Or email us at oif@ala.org