April 26, 2019 – Collated by OIF Staff and News Editors

Highlights

• Libraries Close the Gap on Unequal Privacy During Choose Privacy Week 2019: Celebrate #ChoosePrivacy Week May 1 – May 7, 2019.
• Freedom to Read Foundation Announces Intellectual Freedom Course and Scholarship Opportunities
• Keep library workers safe | American Libraries; “My wife was killed at the library where she worked. We can take measures to prevent acts of violence in our libraries.”
• Archived Webinar with Kristin Pekoll: Don’t #%?$ My Graphic Novels: Conquering Challenges and Protecting the Right to Read

Censorship

• Maryland middle school cancels play but now says the show might go on | Washington Post
• Policy change in NJ school district paves way for censors | CPLDF
• Facing the PTA: Scales on Censorship | School Library Journal
• Teacher accuses high school of free speech censorship over article about student in adult entertainment industry | Newsweek

Privacy

• NSA reportedly recommends retiring phone surveillance program | C|net
• Big business is poking holes in California’s landmark privacy law | Fast Company
• Made in China, Exported to the World: The Surveillance State | New York Times
• The privacy implications of self-driving cars | OIF Blog
• Are workplace wellness programs a privacy problem? | Consumer Reports
• Amazon’s Alexa team can access users’ home addresses | Bloomberg
• Think you’re discreet online? Think again | New York Times
• To really protect our privacy, let’s put some numbers on it | Fast Company
• Facebook will finally pay—billions—for its privacy missteps | Wired
• Congress urged to ban use of data for voter suppression, discrimination | Media Post
• The privacy and antitrust worlds are starting to cross over | IAPP Privacy Advisor

Access

• When local newspapers close, what can libraries do? | OIF Blog
• The bias hiding in your library | The Conversation
• Yale students aren’t ready to close the book on the school’s libraries just yet | Washington Post
• Blockchain technology may lead to true ebook ownership | Good E-Reader

Net Neutrality and Broadband Access

• Millions of refugees need broadband, too | Washington Post
• The digital divide is worse than we thought | Tech Radar
• A Case for Critical Public Interest Technologists | Data & Society

Fake News, Free Press, Social Media

• Sizing Up Twitter Users | Pew Research Center
  • Key takeaways from our new study of how Americans use Twitter | Pew Research Center
• Tech companies want to silence hate speech, but can they? | SF Gate
• Facebook blocks could open the door to online censorship | The Verge
• Texas bill would allow state to sue social media companies like Facebook and Twitter over free speech | Texas Tribune
• It’s U.S. vs. world as big tech faces specter of limiting speech online | New York Times
• How WhatsApp, FaceTime and other encryption apps shaped the outcome of the Mueller report | Washington Post
• Twitter shuts down 5,000 pro-Trump bots retweeting anti-Mueller report invective | Ars Technica

Academic Freedom & Campus Speech

• Fears over Singapore’s ‘fake news’ proposal | Inside Higher Education
• Student expelled from school over ‘politically incorrect views:’ lawsuit | The Verge
• Is a university honoring a Holocaust denier? | Inside Higher Ed

First Amendment and Free Speech

• The Higher Education Act must protect free speech | The Hill
• Donald Trump, the ACLU, and the ongoing battle over the legitimacy of free speech | The New Yorker
• S.A. and Chick-fil-A shows why free speech matters | San Antonio Express-News
• The week in tech: Do you prefer free speech, or a perfectly clean internet? | New York Times
• Fifth Circuit rule for plaintiff in free speech challenge to sheriff office Facebook page | Constitutional Law Prof Blog
• First Five Podcast: A conversation with the executive director of the Student press Law Center | Freedom Forum Institute
• Divided 10th Circuit panel gives inadequate First Amendment protection to employee demoted for truthful sword court testimony | Freedom Forum Institute

Around the Web

• Justices to weigh whether Title VII covers sexual orientation, gender identity | Education Week
• Thoughts on Andrew Curran’s Diderot and the Art of Thinking Freely | OIF Blog
• Houston high school’s dress code for parents draws pushback | Houston Public Media
• From ‘Little House’ to libertarianism: Rose Wilder Lane’s troublemaking life | NPR
• The fall, and the rise, of reading | Chronicle of Higher Education
• Burning books for children | OIF Blog; “One author’s experience bringing Che Guavera to the heartland”

 International Issues

• China’s national library wants to archive social media posts and users aren’t happy | Abacus News
• Russia’s sovereign internet law will destroy innovation | The Moscow Times
• China film industry: Beijing balances censorship and growth | Aljazeera
• Sri Lanka temporarily blocks social media: Public safety or censorship? | Freedom Forum Institute
• Don’t praise the Sri Lankan government for blocking Facebook | Wired
• Barcelona school purges 200 kids’ books | CBLDF

ALA News

• 2019 ALA Virtual Membership Meeting; May 9th @ 1:30 CST
• New session: Offering Service and Support to the LGBTQIA Community and Allies Workshop
• Conversing with the Ethnic Affiliates of the American Library Association Webinar
• U.S. Department of Education Seeks Comments on IPEDS Changes by May 20

 

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