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
  • Trump’s call for crackdown on Twitter and Facebook now on Ajit Pai’s desk | Ars Technica
• 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
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• how to get involved and make the most of what ALA offers