Intellectual Freedom News 5/8/2020
Highlights
- Privacy During a Pandemic: Town Hall for Library, Information Workers for Choose Privacy Week; 1 P.M. Today, May 8
- The Challenge of Challenges: Strategies for Protecting Inclusion and Silencing Censors; 12 P.M. Tuesday, May 12
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
- Second Snapshot of School Librarian Roles during School Closures | Knowledge Quest
- School librarians facilitate meaningful learning despite massive school closures | eSchool news
Censorship
- After hours of public comment, Mat-Su school board’s vote to rescind book removal is pushed to later this month | Alaska Public Media
- School board adjourns without action | Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman
- Our schools should not be known for this | Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman
- Rock band Portugal. The Man will send kids the books an Alaska school district banned | CNN
- Book banning is a bipartisan game | Dallas Morning News
- But who will educate the school board? | Real Clear Politics
Privacy and Cybersecurity
- Privacy During the Pandemic | Choose Privacy Everyday (Updated Weekly)
- How Americans see digital privacy issues amid the COVID-19 outbreak | Pew Research Center
- Welcome back to the office. Your every move will be watched | Wall Street Journal
- Covid-19 is changing the way we think about privacy | Fast Company
- It’s Not Just Zoom. Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Webex Have Privacy Issues, Too | Consumer Reports
- Before we use digital contact tracing, we must weigh the costs | Washington Post
- Schooling in coronavirus days—where did student privacy go? | The Jerusalem Post
Additional privacy posts, news, and updates are available at the Choose Privacy Every Day blog.
Access
- Trump administration buries detailed CDC advice on reopening | Associated Press
- In pursuit of open science, open access is not enough | Science Magazine
- Postal Services Struggles Could Hurt Mail-In Election | Pew Stateline
Copyright
Net Neutrality & Broadband Access
- The Covid-19 Pandemic Shows the Virtues of Net Neutrality | Wired
- Bridging the digital divide for rural communities more critical than ever | The Hill
- Parking lots have become a digital lifeline | New York Times
- While More Americans Rely on Parking Lot Wi-Fi, Many Public Libraries Do Not Have Adequate Broadband | Benton Institute for Broadband & Society
- School children without internet. We could fix that | Forbes
- The coronavirus pandemic is breaking the internet | The Hill
- Why rural America’s digital divide persists | New York Times
- Colombia’s coronavirus app troubles show rocky path without tech from Apple, Google | Reuters
- NYT defeats Ajit Pai as judge orders FCC to provide net neutrality records | Ars Technica
Academic Freedom & Campus Speech
- Contradictions on free speech | Inside Higher Ed
- The continuing danger of academic espionage | Inside Higher Education
- The First Amendment on Campus 2020 Report: College Students’ Views of Free Expression | Knight Foundation
Hate Speech | Hate Crimes
- Covid-19 has caused a major spike in anti-Chinese and anti-Semitic hate speech | The New Statesman
- Top US Antisemitism Official Urges ‘Aggressive’ Response to Rise of Online Hate Speech During Coronavirus Crisis | The Algemeiner
- Maryland court upholds conviction for racist school graffiti | Courthouse
Fake News, Free Press, Social Media
- Facebook names 20 people to its ‘Supreme Court’ for content moderation | NBCNews
- Elon Musk and Twitter: A Censorship Double Standard? | Real Clear Politics
- Twitter failing to curb misinformation “superspreaders,” report warns | Ars Technica
- “The Impact of Covington Will Be the Whole World”: Doxing, Privacy, and Free Speech in the Age of Pervasive Tech | Intellectual Freedom Blog
First Amendment & Free Speech
- Court Hears Free-Speech Challenge to Robocall Ban | Wall Street Journal
- Protesters would be banned from carrying Confederate flag at Michigan Capitol, bill proposes | ABC 13 (MI)
- 5 charts on views of press freedom around the world | Pew Resaerch Center
Around the Web
- Requests for Reconsideration at the Public Library Part Four: Sensitive Topics and Abuse | Intellectual Freedom Blog
- Coronavirus lessons on density, mass transit, bureaucracy and censorship: They kill | USA Today
- When public librarians meddle | Scales on Censorship | School Library Journal
- Crying censorship: The ethics of publishing the problematic | Book Riot
- The dangerous liberal ideas for censorship in the United States | The Hill
International Issues
- UK to test COVID-19 tracing app on the Isle of Wight this week | Reuters
- Coronavirus: Ireland & UK adopt different tracing approaches | BBC
- South Korea’s tracking of COVID-19 patients raises privacy concerns | NPR
- India orders coronavirus tracing app for all workers | Reuters
- Harmoniously denied: The wider implications of China’s censorship on COVID-19 | Open Democracy
- China’s WeChat Monitors Foreign Users to Refine Censorship at Home | Wall Street Journal
- Top Russian newspaper fights for survival amid censorship row | DW
ALA News
- New Book: “Intellectual Freedom Stories From a Shifting Landscape”
- Libraries and the substance abuse crisis
- ALA announces STEAM funding and exhibitions for rural libraries serving Latino populations
- Mark your calendar, ALA Virtual: Community through Connection June 24-26, 2020
- ALA releases 2020 State of Libraries report
- Join the “IFRT Reads” community; “IFRT Reads” is a virtual discussion group where IFRT members have opportunities to expand their knowledge and current awareness of intellectual freedom topics by discussing a shared reading venture. There will be a Connect discussion and a live group discussion for each reading.
- New Wonder Woman, Banned Books Week materials, and more from ALA Graphics
- Access to ALA Editions | ALA Neal-Schuman textbooks during the COVID-19 pandemic
- Freedom to Read Foundation Launches Webinar Series; next webinar May 12
- 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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- articles about privacy, internet filtering and censorship
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