Intellectual Freedom News 7/31/20
Highlight
- New banned book masks on ALA Graphics Gift Shop and last day to enjoy 15% savings | ALA Graphics Gift Shop
Censorship
- Michael Cohen Cleared To Publish Tell-All As Trump Administration Backs Off Media Ban | Forbes
- How Trump’s Efforts To Ban Critical Books Violate The Constitution | WGBH-Boston
Privacy and Cybersecurity
- DHS Authorizes Domestic Surveillance to Protect Statues and Monuments | Lawfare
- The Centuries-Long History of Racism in Surveillance Tech [podcast] | WIRED
- 2 More Sign on to Suit Challenging Lockport School Surveillance System | Lockport Union-Sun & Journal
- Rite Aid deployed facial recognition systems in hundreds of U.S. stores | Reuters
- NIST study finds that masks defeat most facial recognition algorithms | VentureBeat
- TikTok says it will let U.S. skeptics see its code to defray privacy concerns | Reuters
- 74% of Internet Users Feel They Have No Control Over the Personal Information Collected on Them | Security Boulevard
- Predictive policing algorithms are racist. They need to be dismantled. | MIT Technology Review
Additional privacy posts, news, and updates are available at the Choose Privacy Every Day blog.
First Amendment, Free Speech, and Civil Liberties
- Douglas County sheriff tells library that supported Black Lives Matter not to bother calling 911, then backtracks | Nevada Independent
- We’ve Neglected the Freedom of Assembly for Years Before Portland | Slate
- “Defendant Shall Not Attend Protests”: In Portland, Getting Out of Jail Requires Relinquishing Constitutional Rights | ProPublica
- Federal Judge Enjoins Federal Agents Acting Against Journalists and Legal Observers in Portland, Oregon | Constitutional Law Prof Blog
- DHS compiled ‘intelligence reports’ on journalists who published leaked documents | The Washington Post
- Trump Administration Moves to Curb DACA | Inside Higher Ed
- Dare to Speak: A Reading List | PEN America
Access
- Disinfectant, Gloves And Quarantined Books: How Massachusetts Libraries Are Coping As They Slowly Reopen | WGBH Boston
- Unhappy with District Plans for Fall, Parents Are Creating Personal Learning Pods or Choosing To Homeschool | School Library Journal
- Wake up, Libraries: Curbside Pickup is NOT the Answer | School Library Journal
- Library Stabilization Fund Act Seeks $2 Billion for Pandemic Losses, Reopening Costs, and More | Library Journal
Net Neutrality & Broadband Access
- In Rural Minnesota, 1 in 5 Lack High-Speed Internet Access | Government Technology
- So Much for the Decentralized Internet | Atlantic; “A recent Twitter hack probably didn’t scare you. Here’s why it should.”
Academic Freedom & Campus Speech
- Fordham Student Banned from Campus over Post Commemorating Tiananmen Square Massacre | National Review
- Report: College Policies Restrict Press Rights | Inside Higher Ed
- Freedom of the Press on Campus | University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement
Fake News, Free Press, Social Media
- Ninety-nine days to do better | Columbia Journalism Review
- The American Approach to Free Speech Is Flawed—but It’s the Best Option We Have | Slate
- Why Congress should look at Twitter and Facebook | MIT Technology Review
- Americans are getting more nervous about what they say in public | The Economist
- NTIA Follows Trump’s Unconstitutional Order To Request The FCC Review Section 230 | TechDirt
- Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube scrub platforms of viral video making false coronavirus claims | The Mercury News
- Trump’s coronavirus retweets spark claims of censorship | Portland Press Herald (ME)
- Twitter suspends Donald Trump Jr. for posting COVID misinformation | Ars Technica
Copyright
- Internet Archive Answers Publishers’ Copyright Lawsuit | Library Journal
International News
- Call to ban “To Kill a Mockingbird” from Irish schools because of racist text | IrishCentral
- Turkey: Social Media Law Will Increase Censorship | Human Rights Watch
- ‘I will continue until I have no other choice’: The art of bookselling under Hong Kong’s national security law | Hong Kong Free Press
- How China used censorship to hide the coronavirus truth | CNet
- Hong Kong University sacks veteran democracy activist | Reuters
- The UK’s app failure sums up our fatally flawed coronavirus response | The Guardian
Around the Web
- Black Suffrage Heroes Honored in Digital Public Library | Washington Informer
- Nashville Public Library previews new women’s suffrage room | The Tennessean
- Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret at 50: author Judy Blume on the taboo-busting teen book |CBC.ca
- How the Greensboro Four Sit-In Sparked a Movement | History Channel
- ‘The Right of a Woman to Her Own Person:’ Interview with ‘Jane Against the World’ Author Karen Blumenthal | Intellectual Freedom Blog
- Every Canceller its Book and Every Book its Canceller | Intellectual Freedom Blog
- ‘Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me,’ ‘Guts’ Win at 2020 Eisner Awards | School Library Journal
ALA News
- FTRF Hosts Webinar on Collecting and Protecting LGBTQ+ Materials and Programs; August 5
- ALA awards $1.3 million to 13 libraries to develop library entrepreneurship centers
- AASL announces Best Digital Tools for Teaching & Learning
- Volunteer to Serve on ALA, Council, and Joint Committees for 2021-2023
- Muskingum County Library convenes national, state and community leaders, confronts digital divide
- CopyTalk webinar on copyright LibGuides coming August 6
- School librarians lead during pandemic learning conditions
- ALA COVID-19 resources guide path to reopening and recovery
- ALA, Capital One invite rural libraries to apply for Community Connect: Digital Access at Home grants; due August 26
- Libraries invited to apply for ALA’s ‘Resilient Communities: Libraries Respond to Climate Change’; due August 28
Subscribe to future issues of Intellectual Freedom News, a free weekly compilation of news delivered to your inbox by the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom, including
- current book challenges in libraries and schools
- articles about privacy, internet filtering and censorship
- ALA activities, conferences and institutes, products, online learning opportunities, awards and grants, international exchanges, and more
- how to get involved and make the most of what ALA offers