Intellectual Freedom News 3/6/2020
Highlights
- Freedom to Read Foundation to Offer an ALA Conference Scholarship through the Gordon M. Conable Fund (retweet)
Censorship
- ‘Sex is a Funny Word’ among titles causing controversy over books at Ludlow middle school library | MassLive
- Puberty books in Ludlow library spark backlash from parents | 7 News Boston (MA)
- First Amendment champions must fight against threats to libraries, free press | The Daily Herald (TN)
- Broomfield’s ‘Drag Queen Story Time’ met with support, protest | Daily Camera (CO)
- Parents push to remove book from Columbus Elementary School library | Columbus Journal (OH)
- Library refuses to remove obscene book | Thousand Oaks Acorn (CA)
- Librarians could be jailed and fined under a proposed censorship law | Salon
- Newark City School District apologizes for homework containing “censored version” of racial slur | 10 WBNS (OH)
- Opinion: Teachers deserve protection for protecting student rights | Bloomfield Democrat (IA)
Privacy and Cybersecurity
- Intellectual Freedom Committee Forms Working Group to Respond to Facial Recognition Technology | Intellectual Freedom Blog
- Data Protection is About Power, Not Just Privacy | Public Knowledge
- ICE has access to Maryland driver’s license records. State lawmakers want to limit it. | Baltimore Sun
- Clearview’s Facial Recognition App Has Been Used By The Justice Department, ICE, Macy’s, Walmart, And The NBA | Buzzfeed
- This small company is turning Utah into a surveillance panopticon | Vice
- Aspiring Terrorists are in Every Iowa School, Surveillance Companies Warn: ‘The Student Surveillance Industry is Overrun with Buzz Words, Misinformation, and Fearmongering.’ | The Gazette
- The case against smart baby tech | Recode
- Algorithmic Systems and Human Rights: The Council of Europe’s Venture into AI Standard Setting | Inside Privacy
- What Constant Surveillance Does to Your Brain and Behavior | The Telegraph
Additional privacy posts, news, and updates are available at the Choose Privacy Every Day blog.
Access
- Libraries and pandemic preparedness | American Libraries
- Tips for your 2020 census team | American Libraries
- Fact versus fear: Libraries assuage census anxieties | American Libraries
- Despite cybersecurity risks and last-minute changes, 2020 Census goes online | NPR
- True to the mission: Going fine-free improves library access | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
- Panorama Project to provide actionable data on importance of libraries to publishers | Library Journal
- When ‘Open’ isn’t open: Understanding copyright and permissions for OER | Knowledge Quest
Net Neutrality & Broadband
- Why ‘rural broadband’ may no longer be an oxymoron | Fast Company
- Minnesota House passes party privacy bill for presidential primaries | Post Bulletin (MN)
- Bridging digital divides between schools and communities | Brookings
Academic Freedom & Campus Speech
- The university’s First Amendment rights | Inside Higher Ed
- Arizona house passes campus intellectual diversity bill | National Review
- South Dakota heads toward banning university faculty union | Rapid City Journal (SD)
Fake News, Free Press, Social Media
- Fake news, state standards, and media literacy | Intellectual Freedom Blog
- In U.S., most oppose micro-targeting in online political ads | Knight Foundation
- Trump sues The Washington Post for defamation | Huffington Post
- Can YouTube quiet its conspiracy theorists? | New York Times
- Twitter vows that as disinformation tactics change, its policies will keep pace | NPR
- Twitter Official Explains Blue Exclamation Marks On Potentially Misleading Content | NPR
- It’s time to hold big tech accountable for political censorship | Brown Political Review
- YouTube Isn’t Bound by the First Amendment | Volokh Conspiracy
- The Erosion of Publisher Liability in American Law, Section 230, and the Future of Online Curation | Mercatus Center
- Section 230 as First Amendment Rule | Harvard Law Review
- Proposed bill would end “likes” for young teens’ online content | Ars Technica
First Amendment & Free Speech
- Free speech and the library | YS News (OH)
- Release of John Bolton book pushed back until May amid National Security Council review | Washington Post
- Connecticut criminalizes speech that ‘ridicules.’ That law has to go. | Hartford Courant
- When Free Speech is a crime | Intellectual Freedom Blog
- Sorry, Tulsi Gabbard, Google can’t violate the First Amendment | Ars Technica
Around the Web
- Alaska father speaks out after his kids find traditional dishes listed in book of ‘disgusting’ foods | Anchorage Daily News (AK)
- How censorship created porn’s new face of pleasure | Vice
- Happy Birthday, Dave Pilkey! | Intellectual Freedom Blog
- Op-Ed: Why are some books more offensive than others? | The Hub
- Critics of Oprah Book Club title put new novel on trial | New York Times
- How a classic children’s book got hijacked by the culture wars | Slate
- China has censored the Archive of Our Own, one of the internet’s largest fanfiction websites | Vox
International Issues
- China likely to regulate apps more stringently in the future in 2020 | IAPP Privacy Advisor
- Europe: death by censorship | Spiked
- Forced online by virus, China’s schools run into censorship| Associated Press
- Coronavirus: Chinese app WeChat censored virus content since 1 Jan | BBC News
- Free speech group Scottish PEN accused of hypocrisy in trans row | The Times
- Anime and manga depicting sexual images of children spark calls for review of classification laws | ABC News
- Australian university groups dispute ‘academic freedom’ definition | Times Higher Education
- China cracks down on ‘sexual innuendo’ and ‘celebrity gossip’ in new censorship rules | The Guardian
ALA News
- OCLC, PLC report offers strategies for public libraries to respond to the opiod crisis
- Application open for 2020 ALA Leadership Institute; due March 9
- United for Libraries to host National Library Legislative Day webinar for members
- AASL to host webinars for school library preparation faculty and instructors
- ALSC and ACM accepting applications for Forum on Service to Immigrants/Refugees; due March 31
- ALA calls for 2020 L. Ray Patterson Copyright Award nominations; due April 1
- ALA seeks proposals for 2020 Diversity Research Grants; due April 15
- K-8 libraries invited to apply for $5,000 award recognizing outstanding programming; due May 4
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