Intellectual Freedom News 3/5/2021
Highlights
- The Dr. Seuss Controversy: What Educators Need to Know | Ed Week: “How libraries approach the Dr. Seuss books is going to differ,” said OIF Director Deborah Caldwell-Stone, “based on individual guidelines for collection curation and community demand for certain books.” (More articles about Dr. Seuss listed below)
Censorship
- Sexually Descriptive Books Under Fire in Leander ISD, Author Defends Her LGBTQ+ Memoir | KXAN NBC
- LTHS Board Drops ‘Huck Finn’ from Curriculum | Riverside/Brookfield Landmark
- Thunder Bay Public Library Pulls Some Dr. Seuss Books for Review | Tbnewswatch
- Local Libraries Begin Removal of Controversial Dr. Seuss Books | WAVY
- University Librarians Set Record Straight | The Pocahontas Times
Privacy & Cybersecurity
- Why Encryption is Key During Remote Learning | eSchool News
- Florida Data Privacy Bill | JDSupra
- Clearview AI Will Take BIPA Standing Challenge to Supreme Court | Bloomberg Law
- Virginia governor signs nation’s second state consumer privacy bill | Washington Post
- ICE investigators tapped private utility database to pursue immigration violations|The Washington Post
- How One State Managed to Actually Write Rules on Facial Recognition | New York Times
More privacy news is available at the Voices for Privacy blog.
First Amendment, Free Speech, & Civil Liberties
- White House Diversity Training Memo Reverses Trump Actions | Bloomberg Law
- US: House Should Not Pass Policing Bill Without Changes | Human Rights Watch
- Bethany Christian Services to Allow LGBTQ Couples to Adopt, Foster Children | Religion News Service
- Who Gets First Amendment Protections These Days, Anyway? | Slate
- Landgraf Files Bill to Enhance Penalties for Rioting, Preserve First Amendment Freedoms | EIN Presswire
- H.R. 1 Could Restore Our Democracy. As It’s Written Now, It Could Hurt It, Too. | The Washington Post
- Appeals Court Reaffirms School District’s Discretion over Limiting Free Speech Rights of Students | JDSupra
- Republican Introduces Anti-Trans Bathroom Bill in Congress to Stop “Radical Gender Ideology” | LGBTQ Nation
- Free speech advocates say new bills under consideration in Oklahoma Legislature stifles right to protest | KFOR (OK)
- Fourth Circuit: School’s Refusal to Include LGBTQ Rights Essay Didn’t Violate Constitution | Law and Crime
- Oklahoma bill makes it illegal to photo or film police, Dems vote yes | Black Wall Street Times
Access
- Library Offering Hotspots, Computers | The Fountain Hills Times
- Bradshaw Library Offering Chromebooks, Hotspots | The Valley Times-News
- When Should Fines Be Ditched? — Scales on Censorship | School Library Journal
Net Neutrality & Broadband Access
- ALA Welcomes New Emergency Broadband Benefit Program | ALA News
- State Net Neutrality Laws May Lead to Federal Legislation | The National Law Review
- Victory for ‘Net Neutrality’ Law in California | RawStory
- Lawmaker to Reintroduce Net Neutrality Legislation within Weeks | Nextgov
- The Constitutional Foundations Of Communications Law and Policy | The Regulatory Review
Academic Freedom & Campus Speech
- Cornel West: ‘My Ridiculous Situation at Harvard’ | The Chronicle of Higher Education
- Why Cornel West’s Tenure Fight Matters | Boston Review
- Amid Cornel West’s Tenure Dispute, Faculty and Students Clash over Harvard’s Treatment of Black Scholars | The Harvard Crimson
- GOP calls to restrict student athlete protests contradicts free speech law, expert says | WZTV (TN)
- Student Journalist Sues College, Alleging First Amendment Violation | Inside Higher Ed
- ‘People Are Trying to Leave,’ John Carroll Professors Shocked as Board Eliminates Tenure Protections | ABC News 5 Cleveland
- Senate Bill Addresses Free Speech on Florida Campuses | The Famuan
Social Media
- Critics: Iowa Lawmakers’ Big Tech Bill Not Based in Reality | GovTech
- We Worried About Kids and the Internet. We Should Have Been Worried About Adults | Slate Future Tense
- Seattle Law Could Spell Big Trouble for Amazon, Facebook, and Other Big Tech Companies If They Engage in Political Censorship | Law.com
- Are You a Digital Threat to Your College? Read This to Find Out | EdSurge
- Sen. Hughes Bill Protecting Censorship from Social Media Advances to Committee | KLTV (TX)
- OPINION: ‘Censorship’ Creeps into State Legislature | The Lawton Constitution
- Social Media Regulation in the Public Interest: Some Lessons from History | Academic Commons
Copyright
- Opinion: How Copyright Law Can Save Dr. Seuss — and the Rest of Us — from Cancel Culture | The Washington Post
- Safety Dance: Copyright and Advertising Guidance for Viral Dance Trends | JDSupra
- The ABCs of NFTs: A Guide to Non-Fungible Tokens, the Cryptomedia Trend Bringing Ownership to the Internet | Adweek
Journalism, Media, & Disinformation
- Relying on Us: Student Journalists and Censorship | The Utah Statesman
- Mountlake Terrace High School again Honored with First Amendment Press Freedom Award | MLT News
- Nebraska Student Journalists Challenge School’s Prior Review Policy | First Amendment Watch-NYU
- Michael Tubbs on Disinformation, Racism, and News Deserts | Columbia Journalism Review
- The News Provenance Project Wants to Save Journalism Using Blockchain | AdWeek
- Ebony, the voice of Black America for 75+ Years, Set for Digital Relaunch | Chicago Tribune
International News
- Like Pablo Hasél, Spain Wants Me Jailed for Rap Lyrics — But Artists Must Not Self-Censor | The Guardian
- Democracy, Liberty Declining Worldwide Freedom House Report Finds | Voice of America
- Professors Challenge B.C.’s Racist History ahead of 150th Anniversary of Joining Canada | APTN News
- Biden’s Trade Rep Pick Says She Will Fight Chinese Trade Barriers, Including Censorship | Reuters
- Missing — Our Society-Changing Books | The Star
- Fears online Safety Law Could Censor All Adult Content and Force Sex Workers off Internet | The Guardian
- France’s New Culture Warriors | The Nation
- Photojournalists Accuse Facebook of Censorship in Greek Hunger Strike Coverage | Al Arabiya News
- Detention and Abuse of Egyptian Student Is Part of Ongoing Assault on Free Expression, Academic Freedom | PEN America
- Nicaragua’s Press Censorship is “Physical, Legal and Symbolic” | Havana Times
- I Helped Build ByteDance’s Censorship Machine | Protocol
Around the Web
- How ‘Lolita’ Escaped Obscenity Laws and Cancel Culture | The New York Times
- The New War On Woke | ArcDigital Media
- Sexy Times with Wangxian: The internet’s most beloved fanfiction site is undergoing a reckoning | Vox
- Racist, Sexist … Classic? How Hollywood Is Dealing With Its Problematic Content | Hollywood Reporter
- GOP Senators Question Amazon on Removal of Book about ‘Transgender Moment’ | The Hill
- Statement on Amazon’s Removal of When Harry Became Sally | National Coalition Against Censorship
- Kazuo Ishiguro is Right about Cancel Culture | The Spectator
- Safeway Pulled Bestselling “Antiracist Baby” Book from Shelves in Oregon Stores Last Month | Williamette Week
- ‘Children can’t be what they can’t see:’ too few Black doctors, leaders say | Dayton Daily News
- Jarvis DeBerry: Trying to Police a Discussion Of ‘White Rage’ Is White Rage Itself | nola.com
- Lydia Maria Child and the American Way of Censorship | JSTOR Daily
- Thanks to US laws, sex workers are fighting to stay online – C|Net
Dr. Seuss
- 6 Dr. Seuss books won’t be published anymore because they portray people in ‘hurtful and wrong’ ways | CNN
- 6 Dr. Seuss Books Won’t Be Published for Racist Images | ABC News
- The Reckoning with Dr. Seuss’ Racist Imagery Has Been Years in the Making | NBC News
- Alabama professor on Dr. Seuss: Discontinuing racist books isn’t ‘cancel culture’ | AL.com
- Dr. Seuss Books Are Pulled, and a ‘Cancel Culture’ Controversy Erupts | The New York Times
- ‘Read Across America Day,’ once Synonymous with Dr. Seuss, Is Diversifying. Here’s Why Things Have Changed. | USA Today
- No, a Virginia school district didn’t ban Dr. Seuss books. Here’s what really happened | The Washington Post
- How Dr. Seuss Responded to Critics Who Called Out His Racism | Slate
- 6 Dr. Seuss Books to Cease Publication for Racist Images | Book Riot
- Dr. Seuss is a beloved icon who also drew some extremely racist stuff | Vox
- Dr. Seuss books fill Amazon’s bestseller list after 6 titles discontinued | 10 WBNS
- eBay is removing listings for the Dr. Seuss books that the author’s estate pulled due to their racist imagery | Business Insider
- Dr Seuss rockets up US charts after books pulled over racist portrayals | The Guardian
- Universal Orlando Is ‘Evaluating’ Seuss Landing Area amid Racism Controversy | People
ALA News
- 2021 Annual Conference & Exhibition (Virtual) registration opens
- ALA praises House introduction of Build America’s Libraries Act
- ALA Executive Board endorses Loida Garcia-Febo as 2021-2023 IFLA President-Elect
- ALSC Membership Funding for BIPOC Students and Library Workers
ALA Publishing
- Save 50% on more than 450 products during the ALA Store Moving Sale
- Electronic legal deposit and the library collections of the future
Awards and Grants
- Karen Gabino Wins a Year of Free AASL Membership; Mernie Maestas Wins a Year of Free AASL Membership
- ALA, Dollar General Literacy Foundation announce 16 public libraries receiving adult literacy grants
- AASL Opens New Round of Inspire COVID Recovery Grants
eCourses and Webinars
- United for Libraries’ March 23 Learning Live session to focus on ‘Building Support for the Build America’s Libraries Act’
- Creating a Successful Peer Advising Program
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