Intellectual Freedom News 5/21/2021
Highlights
- Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Nikole Hannah-Jones and Isabel Wilkerson announced as ALA Annual Conference & Exhibition featured speakers: “Nikole Hannah-Jones is an award-winning investigative reporter who covers civil rights and racial injustice for the New York Times Magazine. She was awarded the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for The 1619 Project, The New York Times Magazine’s groundbreaking exploration of the legacy of Black Americans starting with the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in 1619. It has been read by millions, studied in classrooms all across the country, and invoked by politicians on both sides of the aisle. Its central argument, that so many aspects of contemporary American life have their roots in the system of slavery out of which the country grew, has sparked intense debate in the two years since it was published.”
Censorship
- Scarborough schools failed to follow policy in pulling book from 7th-grade curriculum | Press-Herald (ME)
- Loudoun County Public Schools, parents at odds over ‘dirty’ books | Loudoun Times-Mirror
- The Book I Wrote Was Just Banned. Now I’m Fighting to Get it to Every Kid I Can. | Huff Post
- ‘Drag Queen Story Time’ Library Event Draws Fire from Some Haddonfield Residents | NJ Pen
- ‘Firestorm’ of criticism won’t keep Bellingham schools from teaching about diversity | The Bellingham Herald
- Republicans Seize on Conservative Backlash Against Critical Race Theory | The Hill
- Four States Have Placed Legal Limits on How Teachers Can Discuss Race. More May Follow | Education Week
Privacy & Cybersecurity
- Amazon’s Ring is the largest civilian surveillance network the US has ever seen | The Guardian
- Digital IDs Might Sound Like a Good Idea, But They Could Be a Privacy Nightmare | ACLU
- The State of Proposed Biometrics Laws | JDSupra
- Data Tracking in Research: Aggregation and Use or Sale of Usage Data by Academic Publishers | DFG, German Research Foundation
- Survey: Patron Privacy Measures in Public Libraries | University of Illinois
More privacy news is available at the Voices for Privacy blog.
First Amendment, Free Speech, & Civil Liberties
- Local schools, businesses worry ‘divisive concepts’ bill could limit important conversations | Keene Sentinel
- 2 Oklahoma Boys Pulled From Class for ‘Black Lives Matter’ T-Shirt | New York Times
- Seeking Hate Crimes Charges Can Be Harder With Asian Victims | NPR
- Appeals Court Ruling Affirms First Amendment Protection for Abhorrent, Racist Language in Certain Situations | JDSupra
- Bodycams haven’t lived up to promises of exposing police misconduct. One reason: The police decide what to release. | USA Today
- The First Amendment and Mask Mandates | Reason
- As GOP restricts voting, Democrats move to expand access | WFMJ
- Upton Sinclair Knew — and We Must Remember — That No Civil Liberties Victory Stays Won | LA Progressive
- US will ramp up tracking of domestic extremism on social media; some see civil liberties issues | Boston Globe
- Americans and ‘Cancel Culture’: Where Some See Calls for Accountability, Others See Censorship, Punishment | Pew Research Center
Access
- Delaware schools to implement new internet content filtering system | Delaware Public Media
- Amazon will distribute ebooks to public libraries | Good E-Reader
- Digital Library Accessibility and Usability Guidelines (DLAUG) to Support Blind and Visually Impaired Users | University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee
Net Neutrality & Broadband Access
- Libraries Eligible for Billions in Federal Funding to Improve Connectivity for Residents | Route 50
- Millions of fake commenters asked the FCC to end net neutrality. ‘Astroturfing’ is a business model. | The Washington Post
Academic Freedom & Campus Speech
- After conservative criticism, UNC backs down from offering acclaimed journalist tenured position | NC Policy Watch
- A Troublesome Year Leads to President’s Firing | Inside Higher Ed
- Student’s arrest for racist post sparks free speech debate | AP
Social Media
- Biden Revokes Trump Executive Order That Targeted Section 230 | The Verge
- Bill to penalize social media censorship introduced in [Pennsylvania] Senate | NorthcentralPA.com
- Beyond a technical bug: Biased algorithms and moderation are censoring activists on social media | The Conversation
- Facebook banned an account that spread Bill Gates conspiracy theories relating to his involvement in COVID-19 vaccines | Business Insider
- Social app Parler is cracking down on hate speech — but only on iPhones | The Washington Post
- Seller of vaccine disinformation has YouTube channel removed | Western Slope Now
- Republicans have a new tool to fight deplatforming: common carriage laws | The Verge
- An Illustrated Field Guide to Social Media | Knight First Amendment Institute
- Group: Georgia can block internet firms from censoring views | AP
Information Literacy & Disinformation
- US at the forefront of vaccine disinformation via social media | Business Day
- Chinese businessman with links to Steve Bannon is driving force for a sprawling disinformation network, researchers say | The Washington Post
- Israel accused of tricking major news outlets into reporting a fake Gaza invasion to lure Hamas fighters into tunnels that were targeted for massive airstrikes | Business Insider
- Inside one network cashing in on vaccine disinformation | AP
- Distancing from the vaccinated: Viral anti-vaccine infertility misinfo reaches new extremes | NBC News
- Election disinformation was a ‘game changer,’ Maricopa County, Ariz., CISO says | State Scoop
International News
- Yahoo Japan offers free AI that allow clients to censor comments | Nikkei Asia
- ‘Woke’ universities could be fined for ‘cancel culture’ under new free speech law | Coventry Telegraph
- Russia won’t block Twitter, but partial slowdown to continue | AP
- Censorship, Surveillance and Profits: A Hard Bargain for Apple in China | New York Times
Around the Web
- Republicans’ dishonest war against ‘critical race theory’ | The Week
- Biden Dissolves Controversial Trump Orders on Race and Culture | NPR
- Breaking up with your favorite racist childhood classic books | The Washington Post
- Philip Roth biography, pulled last month, has new publisher | ABC News
- Ed. Commissioner Says Duval Teacher Fired Over Black Lives Matter Showdown | WCJT
- Opinion: Now is not the time to reduce library funding | Cincinnati Enquirer
- Budget cuts to public library systems statewide could mean loss of millions in Cuyahoga County | ABC News 5
- Continuing Injustice: The Centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre | Human Rights Watch
- ‘Grassroots’ bot campaigns are coming. Governments don’t have a plan to stop them. | The Washington Post
ALA News
- Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Nikole Hannah-Jones and Isabel Wilkerson announced as ALA Annual Conference & Exhibition featured speakers
- America’s aging public library infrastructure requires billions for construction, renovation: New data analysis
- United for Libraries Virtual Conference program proposal deadline extended to May 24
- Core Forum 2021 – Proposal Submission Deadline Extended to June 1st
- Survey Results Show School Librarians Are Integral – During Pandemic School Closures and Beyond
- PLA now accepting proposals for PLA 2022 Conference
- Core presents its President’s Program, “Seeking Clarity during Low-Morale Experiences: Actualizing Tools for Self-Preservation,” at ALA Annual
- 2021 Edwards Award winner Kekla Magoon to speak at AASL National Conference
- YALSA announces collaboration with IBM to bring focused career prep to diverse teens nationwide
- Public and tribal libraries invited to apply for the NASA@ My Library STEAM initiative
ALA Publishing
Awards and Grants
eCourses and Webinars
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