Intellectual Freedom News 3/17/17
March 17, 2017 – Collated by OIF Staff and News Interns
Intellectual Freedom Highlights
- President’s budget proposal to eliminate federal library funding | District Dispatch; President Trump is proposing to eliminate the Institute of Museum and Library Services in his FY2018 budget.
“The American Library Association will mobilize its members, Congressional library champions and the millions upon millions of people we serve in every zip code to keep those ill-advised proposed cuts from becoming a Congressional reality. Libraries leverage the tiny amount of federal funds they receive through their states into an incredible range of services for virtually all Americans everywhere to produce what could well be the highest economic and social “ROI” in the entire federal budget.” ALA President Julie Todaro #SaveIMLS
- What Zinn censorship attempts tell us about the state of intellectual freedom | Intellectual Freedom Blog
Censorship
- Wando High principal pulls student-run news show over segment on transgender bathrooms | Post and Courrier (SC)
- Temporary censorship a precaution by Wando principal | Moultrie News (SC)
- Committee advises to leave ‘The Glass Castle’ in classrooms | Hub City Times (WI)
- RSF publishes report on censorship and surveillance of journalists on World Day Against Cyber-Censorship | Journalism in the Americas
Hate Crimes in Libraries
Access
- AT&T allegedly “discriminated” against poor people in broadband upgrades | Ars Technica
- Open educational resources and school librarians – The right fit! | Knowledge Quest
- After union clash, Pritzker now allowing parents to volunteer in library | DNA Info (IL)
Privacy
- There were more device searches at US border last month than all of 2015 | Ars Technica
- N.Y. bill would require people to remove ‘inaccurate,’ ‘irrelevant,’ ‘inadequate’ or ‘excessive’ statements about others | Washington Post
- Privacy, poverty and big data: A matrix of vulnerabilities for poor Americans | SSRN
- Police win warrant to search Dakota Access Pipeline protest Facebook page | Ars Technica
- Facebook says police can’t use its data for ‘surveillance’ | Washington Post
- The truth about the WikiLeaks C.I.A. cache | New York Times
- No, microwave ovens cannot spy on you—for lots of reasons | Wired
- Hack brief: High-profile Twitter accounts overrun with swastikas | Wired
- FBI’s methods to spy on journalists should remain classified, judge rules| Ars Technica
- Indictment reveals Russia’s relationship with hackers in Yahoo data breach | IAPP
- Your boss could demand you get genetic testing and hand over the results, if this congressional bill becomes law | CNBC.com
Net Neutrality / Broadband
- If Trump fans love freedom, they should love net neutrality | Wired
- Net neutrality DOA? Here’s what’s next for the internet | CNET
Internet Filters
- Internet filters will NOT protect your children from watching pornography and violence online | Daily Mail
- Study casts doubt on whether internet filters in the home protect teenagers online | Science Daily
Academic Freedom
- Rising to the challenge as US states turn the screw on science education | Nature
- Fordham’s decision to block pro-Palestine group is an attack on my academic freedom | Townhall
- No, professors’ academic freedom should not be virtually unlimited | The Federalist
- UW student: For true academic freedom, the time is now | The MacIver Institute (WI)
- ‘Downshouter’ intolerance threatens academic freedom in the U.S. | Post and Courrier (SC)
First Amendment Issues
- Are students at elite colleges more likely to protest controversial speakers? | Chronicle of Higher Education
- Illiberal arts colleges: Pay more, get less (free speech) | Brookings
- In defending free speech, says Teresa Sullivan, ‘the middle ground is the high ground’ | Chronicle of Higher Education
- Talking past each other on free speech | Chronicle of Higher Education
- Trump travel ban: US judges block new executive order | BBC News
- Here’s a roundup of the latest campus-climate incidents early in the Trump presidency | Chronicle of Higher Education
- Free speech isn’t always valuable. That isn’t the point. | Newseum Institute
Around the Web
- The Dark Web | Congressional Research Service
- Hundreds of Arkansas teachers request Howard Zinn’s A People’s History | Common Dreams
- At Wellesley, a provocative writer talks free speech and feminism — and students talk back | WBUR (MA)
- Censoring Comic Books: The Left And Political Correctness/ The Liberty Conservative
- Banning books is back in style | BillMoyers.com
- Mark Twain’s book on the Holy Land is still controversial – some would say Trumpian read more | Haaretz
- Censorpedia celebrates Women’s History Month | NCAC Blog
- Facebook combats fake news with new warning label | eSchool News
- Savings realized by library patrons measured with tool | The Daily Star (MA)
International Issues
- ‘Gay moment’: Disney pulls Beauty and the Beast in Malaysia following censorship | The Guardian
- Catholic school boards, groups complain professor’s critique of LGBTQ policies is discrimination | Edmunton Sun (Canada)
- European Court of Justice restricts ‘right to be forgotten’ [read judgment] | LiveLaw.in
- Censorship in Catalonia | Spiked
- Germany approves amendments placing greater emphasis on surveillance | IAPP
ALA News
- Senator Jon Tester receives ALA’s 2017 James Madison Award – Freedom of Information Day
- President’s budget proposal to eliminate federal library funding ‘counterproductive and short-sighted’
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