Intellectual Freedom News 7/25/2025
Highlights
- ALA launches the ALA Learning Library, a free resource for members | ALA
- Why We Show Up | American Libraries
- Why media and information literacy are essential in the age of disinformation | World Economic Forum
- The Business And Economic Case For Academic Freedom | Forbes
- Beyond Words: Callie Crossley Covers the Resistance to Book Bans | GBH
- Teen Advocacy Institute: Power to the Readers! | National Coalition Against Censorship
- Jason Reynolds to Keynote AASL National Conference General Session | ALA
- ALA Launches New Strategic Plan | ALA
Censorship
- Florida told school libraries to yank ‘pornographic’ books — most had never been checked out | Orlando Sentinel (FL)
- Trump Told Park Workers to Report Displays That ‘Disparage’ Americans. Here’s What They Flagged. | New York Times
- Censorship lost in Huntington Beach’s recent special election. Or did it? | LAist (CA)
- St. Charles County Library adopts new book challenge policy | FOX2Now (MO)
- St. Charles County libraries enact new rules for book challenges | St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO)
- Lafayette library settles First Amendment lawsuit. Here’s what the new guidelines entail. | Arcadiana Advocate (LA)
- July 2025 – Settling the Federal Lawsuit | Lafayette Citizens Against Censorship (LA)
- Alabama library board proposes ban on material discussing trans issues from kids’ sections | Montgomery Advertiser (AL)
- Roxbury school board overrules its own book committee, bans LGBTQ novel ‘Gender Queer’ | Daily Record (NJ)
- ‘Opt in’ or opt out? Napa County school weighs how far to go in limiting LGBTQ+ lessons | Press Democrat (CA)
- Board Agrees To Omit ‘Perspective’ Wording From Library Materials Policy | Vermillion Plain Talk (SD)
- Naval Academy Settles on Shorter List of Banned Books as Pentagon Panel Weighs Ultimate Decision | Military.com
- Harford County school’s decision to ban book has parents, teachers voicing concerns | CBS News (MD)
- Harford County’s first book ban has parents and teachers concerned | Baltimore Banner (MD)
- Jackson Co. threatens to break up another NC regional library | Carolina Public Press (NC)
- What Do Michiganders Really Think? MLA Public Opinion Survey on Public Libraries and Book Banning | Michigan Library Association (MI)
- Amy Sherald Cancels Her Smithsonian Show, Citing Censorship | New York Times
- Letter shows SC education board asked school district to follow ‘book ban’ guidelines | Island Packet (SC)
- Pinellas, Pasco schools remove books after state threatens Hillsborough | Tampa Bay Times (FL)
Privacy & Cybersecurity
- When Your Power Meter Becomes a Tool of Mass Surveillance | EFF
- Oregon Strengthens Geolocation Data Privacy and Children’s Personal Data Protections, Adding to Compliance for Data Brokers and Others | JDSupra (OR)
- WhoFi: New surveillance technology can track people by how they disrupt Wi-Fi signals | TechXplore
First Amendment & Civil Rights
- Trump’s Student Arrests, and the Lawsuit Fighting Them, Tread New Ground | New York Times
- Naturalized Citizens Are Scared | Atlantic
- Trump Order on International Criminal Court Likely Violates First Amendment, Judge Rules | New York Times
- ICE detention is growing in the South. This state was the first. | USA Today
- Appeals Court Backs Arkansas Law Targeting Critical Race Theory | EducationWeek (AR)
- States Sue Over Trump’s Ban on Undocumented Youth in Head Start, Early College | EducationWeek
- Pennsylvania officers face First Amendment lawsuit for trying to criminalize profanity and using patrol car to chase man who recorded police | FIRE (PA)
Academic Freedom & Student Speech
- ‘Extortion’: Columbia University’s deal with White House met with mixed reactions | Guardian
- Trump administration and Harvard spar in court over massive funding freeze | NBC News
- Faculty Unions & New York City Electeds Say ‘Hands Off Higher Ed! Hands Off CUNY!’ | WNY Labor Today (NY)
- Revealed: Harvard publisher cancels entire journal issue on Palestine shortly before publication | Guardian
- In midnight move, CMU students roll in new fence to protest closure of free speech icon | Pittsburgh’s Public Source (PA)
- Hearing concerns, Iowa regents further delay vote on DEI/CRT policy | Gazette (IA)
- Columbia disciplines dozens of students for pro-Palestinian library protest in May | Guardian (NY)
- Beyond Harvard, conservative efforts to reshape higher education are gaining steam | ABC News
Legislation
- Mass. bills aimed at protecting librarians, preventing book bans get hearing | WAMC (MA)
- First-Ever Ban on Surveillance Pricing Introduced in Congress | American Prospect
State & Local Governance
- Florida reduces competency requirements for school media specialists | Tampa Bay Times (FL)
- Professor who pushed for UI Center for Intellectual Freedom to lead it as interim | Gazette (IN)
- APLS board’s Ron Snider accuses chairman John Wahl, board member Amy Minton of using positions for political gain, harming libraries | 1819 News (AL)
Net Neutrality & Broadband Access
- Kessler bill to establish net neutrality standards in Maine is now law | Maine House Democrats (ME)
Social Media & AI
- Why the Supreme Court’s new push to regulate social media threatens free expression | Scroll.in
- Turkey becomes the First to Censor Musk’s AI Chatbot Grok | Informed Comment
- Artificial Intelligence and Democratic Freedoms | Knight First Amendment Institute
- AI Could Exacerbate Inequality, Experts Warn | ACLU
Journalism & Media
- Public Broadcasting Federal Funding Cuts Threaten Free Speech and Press Freedom, Knight Institute Says | Knight First Amendment Institute
- White House Bans Wall Street Journal From Press Pool on Trump’s Scotland Trip | New York Times
- Inside the Radio Stations Devastated by Public Funding Cuts | Columbia Journalism Review
Disinformation & Media Literacy
- He survived a mass execution at 17. Now he’s fighting disinformation and denialism. | NBC News
- Tulsi Gabbard’s Dangerous Disinformation Campaign Against America | Mother Jones
- Understanding and Tackling Climate Disinformation | EDMO
International
- Russia bookstore fined for LGBTQA+ ‘propaganda’ by selling books | Jurist News (Russia)
- A brief (and incomplete) history From anti-piracy policing to banning WhatsApp, behold the evolution of Russian Internet censorship | Meduza (Russia)
- Digital self-censorship: The new norm for international travelers | BoingBoing
- Civil liberties are under an unprecedented modern attack | Morning Star Online (United Kingdom)
- Central Asia’s Evolving Censorship: From Physical Threats To Algorithmic Purges | Radio Free Europe (Kazakhstan)
- Students from the International School of Cinema report censorship of graduation short films | CiberCuba (Cuba)
- Russia passes law punishing searches for ‘extremist’ content | Reuters (Russia)
Around the Web
- Documentary Explores Historic Struggles, Lasting Impact of Black Librarians in America | WTTW
- ‘Back to the Dark Ages’: Education Research Staggered by Trump Cuts | 74
- Fear Comes to America | New York Times
- Report: Americans Have High Trust in Nonprofits | Associations Now
- OPINION Assault on literacy: Banned books and the destruction of our democracy | Windy City Times
- A dismal remake is afoot | News from the States
- “Ban This Book” at Iranian bookstores | Tehran Times
- Beyond Words: Callie Crossley Covers the Resistance to Book Bans | WGBH
- A documentary follows the first openly trans person to argue before the Supreme Court | NPR
- Amid Fear of Retaliation, N.S.F. Workers Sign Letter of Dissent | New York Times
- Livingston Parish Library Board of Control tables decision on library director qualifications | WBRZ
- Silence in the classroom, fear in the faculty: How academic freedom dies at FSU | Opinion | Tallahassee Democrat
- Efforts to restrict or protect libraries both grew this year | Stateline
- Librarians Recommend 8 Books that Changed the Shape of Politics and Reading in America | Electric Lit
- Maxwell: The mind of a Florida book-banner is a delusional place | Orlando Sentinel
ALA News
- Announcing the 2025 Core Forum Keynote Speakers!
- ALA announces 2025-2026 Spectrum Scholars
- Games & Gaming Round Table Celebrates the 2025 Game On! Grant recipients – Johnsburg Public Library District (IL) and University of Southern Mississippi Libraries – Cook Library (MS)
- Call for ALA Standing Committee Volunteers for 2026-2028
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