Intellectual Freedom News 6/20/2024
Highlights
- The American Library Association’s lesbian president is on a mission to protect LGBTQ+ librarians | LGBTQ Nation
- Nominate your librarian for the national I Love My Librarian Award | ALA
- A Small-Town Texas Librarian’s Big Stand Against Book Bans | Texas Observer (TX)
Censorship
- Mission CISD agreed to remove 676 books | Progress Times (TX)
- Time may be up for a far-right school board president who embroiled a California district in controversy | 19th (CA)
- Lafayette libraries to issue restricted cards to all minors | Current (LA)
- Community Library Network Board installs officers, approves policies | Couer d’Alene Post Falls Press (ID)
- Penn Manor school board mulls working with Independence Law Center | Lancaster Online (PA)
- Escambia County forms committees to review challenged books in schools | WEAR (FL)
- Escambia schools seeks public’s help reviewing hundreds of challenged books | Pensacola News Journal (FL)
- Book removed from school shelves shows teens how to deal with adverse situations | Opinion | Florida Today (FL)
- Over 60 books removed from local Iowa schools as case against book ban law continues | Telegraph Herald (IA)
- Tensions rise in response to teachers’ pro-Palestine resource guide as Oregon school year ends | OPB (OR)
- NCAC recommneds policy changes for Cameron R-1 School District in Missouri | NCAC (MO)
- Teacher investigated over ‘Gender Queer’ book resigns, citing effects on her health | Boston.com (MA)
- State Superintendent Ryan Walters’ fight to ban books at Edmond Public Schools isn’t over | KOCO (OK)
- Francis Howell school board looks at gender talks, library limitations ahead of new school year | FirstAlert4 (MO)
- Huntington Beach library privatization bidder withdraws proposal | Orange County Register (CA)
Privacy & Cybersecurity
- Rhode Island Legislature Passes Consumer Data Privacy Act | JD Supra (RI)
- The FBI Made a Phone Network. It Was a Trap. | Slate
- FBI abruptly cancels Hill briefing on encryption | Politico
- California Attorney General Announces Third Public CCPA Enforcement Settlement | JD Supra (CA)
First Amendment & Civil Rights
- Judge blocks Biden administration from enforcing new protections for LGBTQ+ students in 4 GOP-led states | CNN
- Louisiana Requires All Public Classrooms to Display Ten Commandments | New York Times (LA)
- Kansas school district to make changes after LGBTQ dispute | Alva Review-Courier (KS)
- Why Is Midwest Tape/hoopla Creating a New Rating System for Library Purchases? | Book Riot
- The Supreme Court Rejected an Attack on Medication Abortion, But the Fight Is Far From Over. | ACLU
- Six West Virginia Schools Notified of First Amendment Violations in Student Handbooks | WV News (WV)
- Federal Court Partially Halts Oklahoma’s Classroom Censorship Law | ACLU (OK)
- ACLU Comment on Biden Plan to Keep Families Together | ACLU
- Florida transparency advocates push measure to toughen public records violation penalties | Daytona Beach News-Journal (FL)
- A federal appeals court is weighing Florida’s Stop WOKE Act | WFSU (FL)
- Saratoga Springs violated BLM protesters First Amendment rights, Attorney General says | CBS6 Albany (NY)
- NY governor’s subway mask ban proposal sparks debate over right to anonymous protest | Washington Post (NY)
Academic Freedom & Student Speech
- Florida Argues in Court It Is Free to Censor or Control State-School Professors’ Academic Freedom in Classrooms | Flagler Live (FL)
- Professors push back on state argument that professor speech is government speech | Tampa Bay Times (FL)
- A Frightening View of Free Speech and Academic Freedom at Harvard | Reason
Legislation
- Two Vague and Dangerous Book Ban Bills in South Carolina Target Public and School Libraries | Book Riot (SC)
- The Assembly Education Committee Votes to Protects Librarians | InsiderNJ (NJ)
State & Local Governance
- ALLA outlines concerns on new library code changes | AOL (AL)
- Groups opposed to new Alabama library rules want legislators to intervene | Alabama Reflector (AL)
- Changes are coming to Alabama school social studies classes, curriculum | AL.com (AL)
Social Media
- FTC refers TikTok children’s privacy case to Justice Department | Politico
- Tobacco-like warning label for social media sought by U.S. surgeon general who asks Congress to act | Tribune-Democrat/AP
Net Neutrality & Broadband Access
- FCC Urges Court to Let Net Neutrality Rules Take Effect | Broadband Breakfast
- The FCC’s Net Neutrality Order: Going Beyond Blocking, Throttling, and Fast Lanes | National Law Review
Disinformation & Media Literacy
- The Biden admin has no firm plan to call out domestic disinformation in the 2024 election | NBC News
- AI Disinformation Could Help Holocaust Deniers, Report Warns | Inc.
- How a Fugitive Florida Deputy Sheriff Became a Kremlin Disinformation Impresario | Newsweek
- A major disinformation research team’s future is uncertain after political attacks | NPR
- Stanford’s top disinformation research group collapses under pressure | Yahoo!/Washington Post
International
- EU chat control law proposes scanning your messages — even encrypted ones | Verge
- President says libraries are facing ‘censorship’ due to ‘intimidation by far-right groups’ | The Journal (Ireland)
Around the Web
- How Black Librarians Helped Create Generations of Black Literature | New York Times
- ‘They Came for the Schools’ details how GOP targeted race and identity in classrooms | PBS
- Pride Month: Public Libraries in the Crosshairs | SPLC
- A School With 7 Students: Inside the ‘Microschools’ Movement | New York Times
- For Our Children: Honoring Juneteenth by Asserting the Freedom to Read | Children’s Defense Fund
- 10 Banned Books Written by LGBTQ+ Authors You Don’t Want to Miss | Mental Floss
- Banning books goes against the point of libraries | Michigan Daily
- Public libraries resist calls for book removals | WCVB
- The Schools That Are No Longer Teaching Kids to Read Books | Atlantic
- “Why Do They Hate Us So Much?”: Discriminatory Censorship Laws Harm Education in Florida | Human Rights Watch
- 60 For 60: Protecting the Freedom to Read in Honor of the Freedom Summer of 1964 | Children’s Defense Fund
- What Can You Read in Prison? | Esquire
- Winning the Culture War Against Queer Kids’ Books | Literary Hub
- Tribune editorial: Utah democracy is threatened by those who spread suspicion and lies | Salt Lake Tribune
- Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell Co-Hosting Drag Queen Story Hour Event In Boston This Thursday | New Boston Post
- Velshi Banned Book Club: ‘Dragonwings’ by Laurence Yep | MSNBC
- Beth Thames: A love letter to libraries | AL.com
ALA News
- 2024 John Cotton Dana Awards Announced
- New from ACRL – “Critical Library Leadership: Managing Self and Others in Today’s Academic Library”
- Core Webinar: Trailblazing Pathways Across the Digital Divide
- IIDA Announces Winners of the 2024 Library Interior Design Awards
- ALA Releases Free “Partnering for Stronger Programming: A Toolkit for Libraries”
- Congratulations to the 2024 Winners of the Core Career LIFT Award
- Core Webinar – Transforming LibGuides: A Case Study
- Raymond Pun, elected to lead ALA in 2025-26, will step away from the position
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