Intellectual Freedom News 5/15/2020
Highlights
- Business, government, education leaders call for emergency funding for libraries impacted by COVID-19 | ALA News
- ALA Rallies Support for Congressional COVID-19 Relief Packages | American Libraries
- Protecting Privacy During a Pandemic: A Resource Guide | Choose Privacy Every Day blog
- Banned Books Uncensored: Free Webinar on Defending Titles with LGBTQIA+ Content | Intellectual Freedom Blog; webinar Wednesday, May 20
Library Services & COVID-19 Resources
- ALA COVID-19 response; “The resources on this page represent the ongoing work at ALA during these challenging times. We are pressing forward in anticipation of what you and your library need from us and what your communities need from you.”
- Pandemic Preparedness: Resources for Libraries | American Library Association
- Book bus keeps kids reading | ABC News Tampa (FL)
- Some US schools are pulling the plug on distance learning | Associated Press / ABC News
First Amendment and Free Speech
- What words make up a ‘true threat’? Well, that depends | Freedom Forum Institute
- Whose Freedom Counts? | Slate
- News we can lose? | Intellectual Freedom Blog
- Lawsuit alleges Gov. Beshear infringed on protesters’ First Amendment rights | WDRB (KY)
Privacy and Cybersecurity
- Senate privacy hawks score a win that delays surveillance renewal | Politico
- AMA issues new principles to restore trust in data privacy | American Medical Association
- Why COVID-19 tracking will flounder without privacy protections | American Medical Association
- AMA Privacy Principles
- Senator Markey Leads Bipartisan Call for the FTC to Launch Major Children’s Privacy Investigation
- Watching the Watchers: A Comparison of Privacy Bills in the 116th Congress | Congressional Research Service
- Zoom to expand security, privacy safeguards as part of agreement with New York AG | The Hill
- TikTok accused of breaching US child privacy regulations | Ars Technica
Additional privacy posts, news, and updates are available at the Choose Privacy Every Day blog.
Access
- Designing resilient libraries for a post-covid world | Building Design & Construction
- The children being left behind by America’s online schooling | MIT Technology Review
Net Neutrality & Broadband Access
- The State of Broadband Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic | Benton Institute for Broadband & Society
- Under Social Distancing, Rural Regions Push For More Broadband | Pew Stateline
- To Close the Digital Divide, Congress Must Care About All Americans | Morning Consult
- The internet isn’t broken — but its inequalities need to be fixed | The Hill
- If net neutrality still existed, here’s how coronavirus could have played out | Daily Dot
- Democrats try to ban Internet shutoffs until pandemic is over | Ars Technica
Academic Freedom & Campus Speech
- Campus Protests Cost the Class of 1970 Its Commencement. Now Covid-19 Has Taken Away Its 50th Reunion. | Chronicle for Higher Education
- Was this professor dangerous? | Chronicle of Higher Education
Hate Speech | Hate Crimes
- Oregon’s Stand-Against-Hate Initiative: DOJ compelled to document extralegal speech under amended intimidation statute. | Intellectual Freedom Blog
Fake News, Free Press, Social Media
- How Facebook is using AI to combat COVID-19 misinformation and detect ‘hateful memes’ | The Verge
- The Internet Archive is warning users about debunked ‘zombie’ coronavirus misinformation | The Verge
- False claim: Coronavirus is a hoax and part of a wider 5G and human microchipping conspiracy | Reuters
- The Relation between Media Consumption and Misinformation at the Outset of the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic in the US | The Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review
- Facebook Messenger Kids: How Young Is Too Young for a Chat App? | Wall Street Journal
Around the Web
- Join the “IFRT Reads” community; “IFRT Reads” is a virtual discussion group where Intellectual Freedom Round Table members have opportunities to expand their knowledge and current awareness of intellectual freedom topics by discussing a shared reading venture.
- For Bookstore Owners, Reopening Holds Promise and Peril | The New York Times
- ‘I wanted something 100% pornographic and 100% high art’: the joy of writing about sex | The Guardian
- People are worried about Disney censoring ‘Hamilton’ when it comes to Disney Plus this July | Insider
- Knitting for the Apocalypse | The New York Times
International Issues
- India follows China’s lead to widen use of coronavirus tracing app | Reuters
- Court suspends part of Slovakia’s phone-tracking law to fight virus spread | Reuters
- S.Korea to boost coronavirus tracing privacy amid fears of backlash | Reuters
- EU urges voluntary use of virus-tracing apps to speed recovery from pandemic | Reuters
- COVID tracing app needs a makeover, not new laws to keep privacy safe | Sydney Morning Herald
- Swiss plan to ask diners for contact information dropped over privacy concerns | PBS News Hour
- Digital immunity passport ‘the lesser of two evils,’ says UK startup boss | Politico
- EU wants UK to share more data before it grants access to crime-fighting system | The Guardian
- Citizen Lab says non-China registered accounts used to beef up WeChat censorship | ZDNet
- Failure to delete hate speech could cost Facebook, Google billions in France | Ars Technica
ALA News
- Mark your calendar, ALA Virtual: Community through Connection June 24-26, 2020
- ALA seeks proposals for 2020 Diversity Research Grants; due May 15
- LLAMA webinars while you work from home; May 20
- Freedom to Read Foundation Offers 2020 Banned Books Week Grants; deadline May 31
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