May 4, 2018 – Collated by OIF Staff and News Editors

Intellectual Freedom Highlights

• Choose Privacy Week 2018 – Big Data Is Watching You: A Conversation | OIF Blog; “During Choose Privacy Week 2018, the American Library Association invites librarians and library users to engage in a conversation about “big data” in the library and its impact on individuals’ right to privacy via a week-long online forum.
  • Libraries as Public Spaces by Jason Griffey
  • A Privacy Week bookshelf by OIF staff
  • Big data is watching you: The ethical role of libraries and big data by Erin Berman
  • The challenge of balancing customer service with privacy by Sara Houghton
  • Practical privacy: Helping people make realistic privacy decisions for their real lives by Jessamyn West
  • Your Library Association is Watching You by Eric Hellman and T.J. Lamanna
  • Patron Privacy and Data Storage by Matt Beckstrom

Censorship

• Author, Please Come! Nevermind. Please Don’t. | OIF Blog; “Setting aside the fact that it’s just rude, rescinding an author’s invitation to speak because the content of their book is controversial is, in fact, censorship.”
• In wake of backlash over ‘unfortunate poem’ display, Aurora library to start sensitivity training in May | Chicago Tribune
  • Concern over removal of poetry display at Aurora Public Library | NCAC Blog
  • Letter: Library apologized for the wrong thing | Daily Herald
• Charges of censorship as U.N. Press Freedom Day event is called off | New York Times
• Signal says Amazon, Google will no longer help it evade censorship | CNET
• Over 60 conservatives demand Big Tech end “censorship” | Axios
• Oregon school district deems book inappropriate, pulls 3-5 graders out of program | KLCC (OR)
• Letter: Only governments can truly censor | Aiken Standard
• Shawnee Mission School District apologizes, reviews censorship complaints | Shawnee Dispatch (KS)
• O’Fallon Library children’s book choice was ‘indoctrination,’ conservative group says | Bellevue News-Democrat
• Prison book ban leads to federal lawsuit | Clarion Ledger (MS)
• Library Working to Safeguard Info Materials | The Prowers Journal (CO); “Susan Lathrop, Lamar Librarian, believed some clarity would help local residents understand the roles played by CLC, Colorado Library Consortium and EBSCO, an information source site used by students across the country and in the RE-2 School District in Lamar. The issue of access to pornographic materials by students was brought to light during the Lamar City Council meeting, April 23rd by a local group known as Heritage Defenders that referenced these two organizations.”

Privacy

• Mine, not Mined? Libraries and Data Ownership | IFLA
• The GDPR’s Facebook Break-up | OIF Blog
• Choose Privacy – and Think About Census 2020 | Inside Higher Ed
• Davis Library Says No to Collecting Data on Patrons | The Middlebury Campus
• Data Violence and How Bad Engineering Choices Can Damage Society | Medium
• Website privacy policies don’t say much about how they share your data | Science News
• How to wrestle your data from data brokers, Silicon Valley — and Cambridge Analytica | ProPublica
• Here’s why you’re getting so many emails about terms of service updates | Slate
• FTC warns Gator Group, Tinitell that online services might violate COPPA | Federal Trade Commission
• Student loan company notifies 16,500 borrowers of personal data breach | CBS News
• New program teaches kids how to protect their privacy online | CBS News

See this week’s additional privacy news and updates on the Choose Privacy Week blog.

Net Neutrality and Broadband Access

• California net neutrality bill that AT&T hates is coming to New York, too | Ars Technica
• Comcast won’t give new speed boost to Internet users who don’t buy TV service | Ars Technica

Access

• Proximity to books and adult support enhance children’s learning opportunities | Science Daily
• Importance of a collection’s inclusivity | Public Libraries Online
• A university library moved its books offsite, infuriating visitors | Quartzy
• Want to close achievement gaps? Focus on part-time students | Chronicle of Higher Education
• What’s the state of diverse books in libraries? We’re fielding a survey. | School Library Journal
• Library Systems Report 2018 | American Libraries
• Inclusive Restroom Design | Library Design | Library Journal

 Free Press, Social Media, and Fake News

• Online harassment threatens free speech. Now there’s a field guide to help survive it. | Vox
• How Trump’s ‘fake news’ mantra metastasized worldwide | The Daily Beast
• Five ways hate speech spreads online | CNN
• Feminists were right: Ignoring online misogyny has deadly consequences | Washington Post
• How to keep online speech free | Wall Street Jounal
• Mark Zuckerberg says it will take 3 years to fix Facebook | Wired
• Cambridge Analytica shuts down all offices amid ongoing Facebook crisis | Wired
• Bots aren’t the enemy in the information war—we are | Wired
• How to spot responsible journalism | Knowledge Quest

Academic Freedom and Campus Speech

• How sports ate academic freedom | Wall Street Journal
• Journals censorship is not bowdlerisation | Times Higher Education
• The ugly truth of being a black professor in America | Chronicle of Higher Education
• Former professor calls on Wisconsin Supreme Court to define the limits of ‘academic freedom.’ | Fox 6 (WI)
• State of conflict: How a tiny protest at the U. of Nebraska turned into a proxy war for the future of campus politics| Chronicle of Higher Education
• The real free-speech crisis is professors being disciplined for liberal views, a scholar finds | Chronicle of Higher Education
• Why George Mason’s agreements with the Koch Foundation raised red flags | Chronicle of Higher Education
• After spending millions on provocative speakers, here’s how Berkeley is trying to avoid a repeat | Chronicle of Higher Education
• Alt-Right activist disturbs law library, banned From UVA | Library Journal

First Amendment and Free Speech

• Lawrence man sues over his arrest during Missouri library Q&A | Lawrence-Journal World (KS)
• Don’t silence graduation speakers: Fight hate speech with more speech | USA Today
• Column: Free speech goes beyond the First Amendment | New Hampshire Union-Leader
• Influential religious group tells followers only Christians have First Amendment rights | LGBTQ Nation
• Journalists being killed, jailed, threatened–and that’s no joke | Freedom Forum Institute
• A U.S. magistrate judge recommended today that the SPLC’s lawsuit against neo-Nazi leader Andrew Anglin be allowed to go forward, rejecting Anglin’s claim that his orchestration of a terror campaign against a Jewish woman was protected by the First Amendment | Southern Poverty Law Center

Around the Web

• An Interview with Author April Daniels | OIF Blog
• Where Do We Stand? Libraries and Self-Published Authors | OIF Blog
• Books for lasting change: student to host book drive for Illinois inmates | The Courier (IL)
• The mysterious Cambridge library tower, supposedly full of banned books, is opening to the public | The Independent
• Someone created a children’s book to explain the Blockchain | CryptoNews Review
• Millennials stand out for their technology use, but older generations also embrace digital life | Pew Research
• Celebrate Children’s Book Week | Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

International Issues

• Anti-Semitism and censorship make headlines in Europe, Pakistan, Tanzania | RFI
• Controversial Aussie sex education book splits parents | Newshub
• PSEB removes 23 chapters on Sikh history, kicks up storm | Tribune of India
• Massey High principal defends controversial MethHelp handbook given to Year 13 kids | 1 New Now (New Zealand)
• Death in The Jungle Book and genitalia in Baywatch: Why people complained about films last year | The Journal (Ireland)
• First Winnie the Pooh and now Peppa Pig. Why another animated icon has been censored in China | Fortune
• Iran’s judiciary bans use of Telegram messaging app – state TV | Reuters
• Iranians launch banknote protest to get round censorship | BBC
• ‘They want to block our future’: Thousands protest Russia’s internet censorship | New York Times
• Media censorship surrounds the Pashtun rights movement in Pakistan | Global Voices
• Meduza: Russia’s censor blocks another LGBT website for spreading ‘gay propaganda’ | Kyiv Post
• Kmart is selling a graphic sex-ed book in the kid’s section — and parents are fuming | Insider (Australia)
• Kenya film board’s “censorship” of a teenage love story is the latest blackout of gay rights | Quartz
• The Uncensored Playlist: how​ ​news​ ​is being turned into​ ​pop to bypass repressive regimes | The Guardian
• Russian Censor Gets Help From Amazon and Google | Bloomberg
• Are Google and Facebook undermining Europe’s privacy rules? | Wired

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