May 24, 2019 – Collated by OIF Staff and News Editors

Highlights

• Intellectual Freedom & Privacy Events in our Nation’s Capitol | OIF Blog; “ALA’s Annual Conference is in Washington D.C. this year, and the Office for Intellectual Freedom will be there staffing committee meetings, programs, and social events.”
• Help the Freedom to Read Foundation raise enough funds to produce the commemorative book “Reading Dangerously”. Support the kickstarter before June 1 and receive your own limited-edition copy. “Reading Dangerously” features a foreword by Neil Gaiman, and excerpts from banned books like The Hate You Give, Fun Home, Persepolis, and I Am Jazz. http://bit.ly/FTRFKickstarter (tweet)

Censorship

• Alexandria School District pulls two books from program | Echo Press (MN)
• City cancels Drag Queen Story Hour event at Leander Public Library | Hill County News (TX)
• Congressman calls for probe into research censorship claims | US News & World Report
• Dexter school board addressing notification/opt-out policy for parents | The Sun Times News
• Updated: Delaware library’s ‘Drag 101’ riles some, but library stands firm | This Week Community News (OH)
• Alabama Public Television refuses to air Arthur episode with gay wedding | AL.com
• Drag Queen Storytime plagued by protesters outside Main Library | WAVE 3 News (KY)
• Arizona prisons urged to end ban on book about black men | Miami Herald (FL)
• Children’s books depicting kissing causing controversy in Collier County | ABC-7 (FL)
• NJ library postpones controversial “P is for Palestine” book reading due to complaints | The Jewish Voice
• History book edition with controversial passage not used in Polk | The Ledger (FL)
• California parents protest new controversial sex education guidance | KTLA

Privacy

• Why we should stop fetishizing privacy | New York Times
• Bipartisan lawmakers look to ban facial recognition in absence of rules | The Privacy Advisor
• Democrats seek expansion of corporate liability in privacy bill | Bloomberg
• At hearing, US lawmakers consider anti-trust’s role in privacy regulation | The Privacy Advisory
• What makes kids see technology as ‘creepy’? Fear not, a Univ. of Washington study seeks answers | Geekwire
• The fight over a landmark digital privacy law | New York Times
• Lawmakers want to ban warrantless device searches at the border | Nextgov
• Some US cities are moving into real-time facial surveillance | Wired
• Facial recognition has already reached its breaking point | Wired

Access

• Keeping archives active: Access to the past for a more peaceful future | OIF Blog
• It’s not just the citizenship question—the digital divide could hurt the count of Latinos in the census | Nextgov
• Why Are SAT takers getting an ‘Adversity Score’? Here’s some context | Chronicle of Higher Education

Net Neutrality and Broadband Access

• ‘We Do Not Have Coverage Here:’ Texans Take On Federal Broadband Maps | Houston Public Media
• Broadband monopolies are acting like old phone monopolies. Good thing solutions to that problem already exist | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Fake News, Free Press, Social Media

• Social media censorship is hurting those on the margins, EFF project contends | Gizmodo
• Facebook says it is more aggressively enforcing content rules

Academic Freedom & Campus Speech

• 2 more faculty members lose their jobs over contacts with China | Chronicle of Higher Education
• The Academy’s new favorite hate-read | Chronicle of Higher Education; “Is ‘Quillette’ an island of sanity — or reactionary conservatism for the Ph.D. set?”

First Amendment and Free Speech

• ‘Frightening’: Charges against Julian Assange alarm press advocates | New York Times
  • Speech groups pan view Assange indictment | Multichannel
  • Julian Assange’s indictment aims at the heart of the First Amendment | New York Times
• 4 in 10 college students don’t think ‘hate speech’ is protected by the First Amendment | Washington Examiner
• Is revenge porn protected by the Constitution? Some states might say yes. | Washington Post
• University suspends library director over controversial photo display | NCAC

Around the Web

• Happy Birthday, Jodi Picoult! | OIF Blog
• Free ebook of Mueller Report now available | Digital Public Library

 International Issues

• Polish protestors go bananas over art censorship | DW
• How China uses high-tech surveillance to subdue minorities | New York Times
• Banning Wikipedia is China’s latest act of censorship | The Times
• Lawmaker admits he never actually read LGBTQ children’s books he attacked for being inappropriate | Queerty
• Irish regulator opens first privacy probe into Google | Reuters
• How Silicon Valley gamed Europe’s privacy rules | Politico
• Across global elections, social media spreads political propaganda and disinformation | Freedom Forum Institute

ALA News

• Bestselling Author Jason Reynolds is the Opening General Session Speaker at the 2019 ALA Annual Conference & Exhibition in Washington, DC
• Controversial topics and difficult dialogues – Strategies for addressing misinformation in the Library (ACRL)
• Utah Library Association receives the 2019 Gerald Hodges Intellectual Freedom Chapter Relations Award
• New session: Offering Service and Support to the LGBTQIA Community and Allies Workshop
• ALA President Loida Garcia – Febo shares insights on sustainable thinking during United Nations event
• Jefferson Jr. and Swader win the 2019 ALA Equality Award

 

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