July 12, 2019 – Collated by OIF Staff and News Editors

Highlights

• DigitalLead: Hotspot Lending at Your Library, will be held 1-2 p.m. Central Time on Tuesday, July 30. As part of the DigitalLead project, PLA will present a free webinar offering tools and resources to help public library staff start a WiFi hotspot lending program at their institutions.

Censorship

• “[T]hose librarians failed students”: Book ban at Irving Independent School District | Book Riot
• Book banning bigotry | Dallas Voice
• Removed books have been returned to the Danville Correctional Center | Smile Politely
• After protest, Leander Library halts all room rentals pending policy review | Hill Country News
• ‘They sit and rip’: Former inmate claims in suit that Rikers Island correction officers routinely censor the Daily News | NY Daily News
• Leander Public Library abruptly cancels appearance of popular comic author | The Hill

Privacy

• How do we protect our kids’ data and privacy | Wired
• FBI, ICE Find State Driver’s License Photos are a Gold Mine for Facial-Recognition Searches | The Washington Post
• House Judiciary Committee ranking member introduces principles for federal US privacy law | IAPP
• Schools wrestle with privacy of digital data collected on students | The Wall Street Journal
• Critics seek tough punishment for YouTube over kids’ privacy | The Hill
• Dr. Chris Gilliard on surveillance and its effects on marginalized communities | Techtonic with Mark Hurst on WFMU (Recording)
• ‘Fingerprinting’ to Track Us Online Is on the Rise. Here’s What to Do. | New York Times
• How to Call B.S. on Big Data: A Practical Guide | The New Yorker
• As Privacy Concerns Grow, States Create Bold Policies | GovTech
• House Lawmakers Target September, October for Data Privacy Bill, Aides Say | The Morning Consult

Additional privacy news updates are available at the Choose Privacy Everyday blog.

Access

• The future of ebook pricing: ALA concerned over recent changes in publisher strategy | American Libraries
• U. of California canceled its Elsevier subscription. Now it’s losing access. | The Chronicle of Higher Education

Net Neutrality & Broadband Access

• “This is crazy”: FCC kills part of San Francisco’s broadband-competition law | Ars Technica
• Net neutrality was repealed a year ago — what’s happened since? | The Verge
• Killing net neutrality rules did far more harm than you probably realize | TechDirt
• Amazon plans nationwide broadband—with both home and mobile service | Ars Technica
• For rural broadband, sometimes cities must step in | Voice of America

Fake News, Free Press, Social Media

• Trump Looks to Enforce Fairness on Social Media | Broadcasting & Cable
• Robocop is watching: Instagram to use AI to censor mean comments | CryptoCoin News
• This is how AI bias really happens—and why it’s so hard to fix | MIT Technology Review
• Trump v. Big Tech: Social media summit will snub tech titans | The New York Times
• Letting the Internet Regulate Itself Was a Good Idea — in the 1990s | The New York Times
• The ugly side of Facebook’s pivot to privacy is starting to show | The Verge

First Amendment & Free Speech

• Trump can’t block critics from his Twitter account, appeals court rules | The New York Times
• Iowa man charged for critical Facebook post wins settlement | AP News
• Teens and teaching the First Amendment | OIF Blog
• Judge: New Orleans can’t take down Trump quotes mural | The New York Times
• U.S. newsroom employment has dropped a quarter since 2008, with greatest decline at newspapers | Pew Research Center Fact Tank

Around the Web

• Who has the most censored internet? | Gizmodo
• UBC professor compiles list of 118,000 banned books | City News
• Review of ‘Beyond Banned Books: Defending Intellectual Freedom throughout your Library’ | OIF Blog
• Happy birthday, Juno Dawson! | OIF Blog
• Happy belated birthday, Jean Craighead George | OIF Blog

International Issues

• War against an oppressive rule: The Iranian cinema and censorship | International Policy Digest
• Hungary’s academic freedom and the EU: Is it all hot air? | The Globe Post
• Tania Bruguera fights censorship by launching investigative journalism project in Cuba | The Art Newspaper

ALA News

• Accepting Applications for 2020 Class of ALA Emerging Leaders
• July PLA webinar explores access issues related to unreturned library materials
• ALA ‘concerned’ about Hachette Book Group ebook and audio book lending model changes
• ALA uneasy about Simon & Schuster digital lending model changes
• Nominate a superstar librarian for the I Love My Librarian award
• 2020 ALA Annual Conference Program Proposals are Now Open

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