July 20, 2018 – Collated by OIF Staff and News Editors

Intellectual Freedom Highlights

• Libraries = Strong Communities | American Libraries; “Libraries are bastions of democracy, access, intellectual freedom, diversity, and the public good. They play a central role in helping people and communities.”
• Kennedy’s Retirement and Library Issues: What the open Supreme Court seat could mean | American Libraries
• AASL releases new resource guide: “Defending Intellectual Freedom: LGBTQ+ Materials in School Libraries” 

Censorship

• Police are protesting two novels on a school’s summer reading list that grapple with  police brutality | CNN

Privacy

• Microsoft calls for facial recognition technology rules given ‘potential for abuse’ | The Guardian
  • Facial recognition technology: The need for public regulation and corporate responsibility | Microsoft
  • Facial-Recognition Systems Pitched as School-Safety Solutions, Raising Alarms | Education Week
• Tech consumers should not be forced to sacrifice privacy for security | CNBC
• Schools can now get facial recognition tech for free. Should they? | Wired

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

Net Neutrality and Broadband Access

• A single House Republican sides with Democrats on net neutrality | Mashable
• Netflix CEO Reed Hastings: Net Neutrality is a ‘consumer expectation’ | Fortune
• 5 school and library applicants weigh in on E-rate | eSchool News

Filtering

• Researchers find that filters don’t prevent porn | TechCrunch
• Research confirms the anecdotal evidence: Internet content filters are a waste of money | TechDirt
• Sky blue, water wet, porn filters don’t work | Boing Boing; “In Internet Filtering and Adolescent Exposure to Online Sexual Material, two researchers from the Oxford Internet Institute reveal their empirical findings on the efficacy of porn filters — the online systems that are supposed to stop users from seeing sexual images, videos, and text. Their conclusion: porn filters don’t work.”

Access

• Rutherford County’s new library to fulfill needs in ‘digital desert’ | Daily News Journal (TN)
• Who’s welcome here? | Inside Higher Ed

Free Press, Social Media, and Fake News

• House Republicans float online conspiracy theories in hearing about social media ‘censorship’ | NBC News
• As fake news spreads, algorithms and ‘filter bubbles’ take centre stage | Business Standard

Academic Freedom & Campus Speech

• UNC chancellor and provost affirm academic freedom principles, but with a caveat | News & Observer (NC)
• UT: Professors have academic freedom, despite what we say in court | The Statesman; “In defending its policy allowing the concealed carry of handguns in classrooms, the University of Texas has taken a surprising position in a federal appeals court — that individual professors do not have academic freedom.”

First Amendment and Free Speech

• The Cybersecurity 202: Anti-censorship tool opens new rift between lawmakers and tech companies | The Washington Post
  • Lawmakers don’t grasp the sacred tech law they want to gut | Wired (Section 230)
• Judge lifts controversial order requiring the LA Times to alter article about an ex-Glendale cop | Los Angeles Times

Around the Web

• This pro-America book could buck the left-wing YA trend | The New York Post
• A landmark legal shift opens Pandora’s box for DIY guns | Wired
• Use of mobile devices for news continues to grow, outpacing desktops and laptops | Pew Research Center FactTank

International Issues

• US politicians urge Google, Facebook not to censor Vietnamese | Voice of America News
• The struggle for freedom of speech in Tajikistan | Open Democracy
• ‘Saturday Night Live’ pulled in  China amid crackdown on content | The New York Times
• New ruling on freedom of speech will help protect against hate | The Star (Ontario, Canada)

ALA News

• Nominations invited for annual Downs Intellectual Freedom Award | iSchool, University of Illinois
• Library Card Sign-up Month artwork starring the Incredibles now available | ALA News

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