Highlights

• Nominations are now open for the I Love My Librarian Award – Has a librarian made a difference in your life? Nominations for this year’s I Love My Librarian Award are open until September 27, 2021. Ten amazing librarians from public, school, and college/university libraries will win $5,000 each in recognition of their outstanding service to their communities. If you know a librarian who’s gone above and beyond, especially during the pandemic, submitting a nomination is the perfect way to thank them. Learn more and submit a nomination at ilovelibraries.org/ilovemylibrarian.

Censorship

• Trevor Noah book about apartheid among 3 removed from Putnam reading list after outcry | News4Jax
• Library book display causes backlash | The Sun
• Students, community members protest ‘divisive concepts’ law Sunday in Keene [NH] | Keene Sentinel
• Anoka County under scrutiny after internal library memo leak | KARE11

Privacy & Cybersecurity

• NSA surveillance program still raises privacy concerns years after exposure, member of privacy watchdog says | The Washington Post
• Watchdog: 10 Government Agencies Deployed Clearview AI Facial Recognition Tech | NextGov
  • Not even the government knows the full extent of how government is using facial recognition | Marketplace
  • Facial Recognition Technology: Federal Law Enforcement Agencies Should Better Assess Privacy and Other Risks | General Accounting Office
• Spy plane surveillance violates Fourth Amendment, en banc appeals court rules | ABA Journal
• Supreme Court’s TransUnion Ruling Curbs Consumer Privacy Claims | Bloomberg Law
• Maine passes the strongest state facial recognition ban yet | The Verge

More privacy news is available at the Voices for Privacy blog.

First Amendment, Free Speech, & Civil Liberties

• When a Valedictorian Spoke of His Queer Identity, the Principal Cut Off His Speech | The New York Times
  • N.J. principal flouted community standards in censoring gay grad — Editorial | NJ.com
• Tennessee Sued Over New Transgender Bathroom Sign Law | U.S. News & World Report
• Alaska Airlines announces ‘gender-neutral’ policies in response to ACLU letter | HR Drive
• “F— school, f— softball, f— cheer, f— everything,” Except First Amendment Protections for Student Speech | JDSupra
  • Supreme Court Sides with Student in First Amendment Case | JDSupra
  • Perspective: Students, Parents and Free Speech Win in Cheerleading Case | Freedom Forum
• Supreme Court gives victory to transgender student who sued to use bathroom | CNN
  • Supreme Court Allows Gavin Grimm’s Victory to Stand | ACLU
• Supreme Court Upholds Arizona Voting Restrictions | The New York Times
• Iowa ACLU: Back the Blue Act inhibits First Amendment rights | The Center Square
• Justices Pass Up Case Questioning Device Searches at U.S. Border | Bloomberg Law [paywalled]
• National LGBTQ civil rights group sues Florida over transgender sports ban | Orlando Sentinel
• A Florida Free Speech Professor Discusses Ron DeSantis’ Assault on the First Amendment | Rolling Stone
• What Do Conservatives Fear About Critical Race Theory? | The New Yorker
• UN rights chief: Reparations needed for people facing racism | Associated Press
• The ACLU on fighting critical race theory bans: ‘It’s about our country reckoning with racism’ | The Guardian
• Supreme Court declines to decide whether religious flower shop owner can refuse same-sex weddings | CNBC

Net Neutrality & Broadband

• The broadband gap’s dirty secret: Redlining still exists in digital form | CNet

Copyright

• The First NFT Book Marketplace Goes Live | Digital Journal

Access

• Why Prisoners Like Me Need Internet Access | MIT Technology Review
• The Internet is Rotting | The Atlantic

Academic Freedom & Campus Speech

• In push against ‘indoctrination,’ DeSantis mandates survey of Florida college students’ beliefs | The Washington Post
  • A Chilling New Florida Law Will Survey University Students and Faculty About Their Political Beliefs | Future Tense
• Wisconsin, Ohio, and Pennsylvania bills threaten academic freedom over race and sex instruction | FIRE
• A New Magna Charta: A foundational global document on academic freedom and university autonomy gets a rewrite. | Inside Higher Ed
• The FBI accused him of spying for China. It ruined his life. | MIT Technology Review
• The Far Right’s College Crusade | Chronicle of Higher Education
• The UNC Scandal No One Talks About | Chronicle of Higher Education
• After Controversial Delay, UNC Awards Tenure to Nikole Hannah-Jones | Chronicle of Higher Education
  • ‘The Bare Minimum’: UNC’s Black Community Addresses Board of Trustees | Chapelboro.com
• Banning ‘critical race theory’ would be bad for conservatives, too | The Washington Post

Social Media

• TikTok insiders say social media company is tightly controlled by Chinese parent ByteDance | CNBC
• Judge Sides With YouTube In Discrimination Battle | MediaPost
• Judge blocks Florida law aimed at punishing social media companies | CNET
• Judge Throws Out 2 Antitrust Cases Against Facebook | The New York Times
• Prominent Women Call for Tech Giants to Act Against Online Harassment | The New York Times

Journalism & Media

• The US Takedown of Iranian Media Sites Extends a Thorny Precedent | WIRED
• Opinion: How small news outlets are pushing back against Big Tech | The Washington Post

Information Literacy & Disinformation

• Opinion: A war on truth is raging. Not everyone recognizes we’re in it. | The Washington Post
• Decoding Tucker Carlson’s latest conspiracy theory | Coda Story
• Anti-vax group mounts legal blitz to sow disinformation against vaccinations | The Guardian
• Covid vaccine hesitancy: Misinformation ‘spreads faster than virus’ | BBC
• Obama: ‘We should all be worried’ about misinformation that prompted Capitol riot | The Hill

International News

• Primary School in China’s Shandong Calls on Parents to Search Out Foreign Books | Radio Free Asia
• ‘Stop denying racism, start dismantling it,’ U.N. rights chief says | Reuters
• ‘A Form of Brainwashing’: China Remakes Hong Kong | The New York Times
• Chinese censorship found at Australian universities – rights group | Reuters
  • China pressure ‘undermining Australian universities’, report says | BBC
• Bollywood: Filmmakers cry foul over censorship proposals | BBC

Around the Web

• Schocharie [NY] residents enraged over firing of beloved librarian | Times Union
• ‘Crack their skulls’: The latest book on Trump shows America had a narrow escape | Independent
• People want to censor education for the same reasons that slaves weren’t allowed to read | LGBTQ Nation
• Half of New Hampshire’s Diversity Council Quits Over New Law, Citing Censorship Concerns | Newsweek
• North Dakota State Library removes Dr. Seuss book, but not for racist imagery | Bismarck Tribune
• The Republican Party, Racial Hypocrisy, and the 1619 Project | The New Yorker
• What Do Teachers Think About Discussing Racism in Class? We Asked Them | Education Week
• Libraries and the Curse of Knowledge | Lorcan Dempsey
• ‘Bigger than life’: Champion of public library services Regina Minudri dies at age 84 | Daily Californian
• Marjorie Taylor Greene says LGBTQ-inclusive school curriculums are ‘child abuse’ | Metro Weekly
• Library of Congress Looks to AI to Help Users Sift Through Its Collection | The Wall Street Journal

ALA News

• Emerging Leaders 2020-21 Cohort Celebrate – Projects Available for Review
• Choice publishes white paper exploring the opportunities streaming services provide to academic libraries
• Former President of the United States Barack Obama will headline ALA Annual Conference & Exhibition (Virtual) Closing Session
• Programs and Activities for Job Seekers

Awards and Grants

• ALA’s International Relations Round Table Awards Registration Grants for the IFLA 2021 Conference
• Emergency Connectivity Fund $7 billion application window opens
• ALA distributes $1.25 million in COVID emergency relief to 34 U.S. libraries
• Accepting Applications for 2022 Class of ALA Emerging Leaders

More ALA News

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• articles about privacy, internet filtering and censorship
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