• Revised and new intellectual freedom policies and resources available from ALA, IFC
• Make a powerful statement about censorship. Purchases of Banned Books Week materials supports the office’s work in defending and promoting the freedom to read.
• ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom is excited to share a new Facebook group with you. “Celebrate Banned Books Week” is a community designed to foster meaningful conversation and share engaging ideas for anyone who celebrates Banned Books Week.
• Searching for Intellectual Freedom Bloggers 2020 – Apply by September 30th

Censorship

• Empowering teens with freedom of expression | OIF Blog
• Complaints ask for removal of “The Handmaid’s Tale” from school curriculum | WTAP | (OH)
  • Controversial book to remain in Marietta school curriculum | The Marietta Times (OH)
• Critic, performer meet to discuss drag queen event | St. Joseph News-Press (MO)
• Pasco’s Drag Queen Story Hour goes off without protest | Tampa Bay Times (FL)
• Editorial: Clear message sent on banning books | Ocala Star Banner (FL)
• People protesting Drag Queen Story Hour met by counter-protesters | KPBS (CA)
• Twitter thinks the word vagina is ‘vulgar, obscene, and distasteful,’ according to this thread | Stylist
  • Gynecologist calls out Twitter for banning books adverts over use of the word ‘vagina’ | Independent
• Hate group targets American Library Association over Drag Queen Story Hour | LGBTQ Nation
• Future of second censorship lawsuit from inmate unclear | The Daily Progress (VA)

Privacy and Cybersecurity

• The Myth of Consumer Security | Bruce Schneier, Lawfare
• The ethics of hiding your data from machines | Wired
• I visited 47 sites. Hundreds of trackers followed me. | New York Times
• Venmo is exposing your connections with everyone you know | Vice
• Facebook’s new privacy tool comes with a crucial caveat | Forbes
  • Judge in Facebook sex-trafficking case blocks new privacy feature | Bloomberg
• Google Chrome proposes ‘privacy sandbox’ to reform advertising evils | CNet
• Google defends tracking cookies–some experts aren’t buying it | Ars Technica
• Despite breach numbers, patients trust healthcare with most data | Health IT Security
• When transgender travelers walk into scanners, invasive searches sometimes wait on the other side | ProPublica
• Illinois adds safeguards for student data | WBBM News Radio (IL)
• Ring security system program with law enforcement raises privacy concerns | CBS This Morning
• Who needs censorship resistance? Not most of us. | Forbes “Technology is just one variable in the equation of freedom and privacy. The best protection from the threat of unjust financial surveillance comes from having sound legal systems, business practices, and technological infrastructure to mitigate the risks of mass collection of financial data for political purposes. ”
• Exporting digital authoritarianism: The Russian and Chinese models | Brookings

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

Net Neutrality & Broadband Access

• Elizabeth Warren: Here’s how we get broadband internet to rural America | Washington Post
  • FCC dismisses Warren’s attacks as ‘hot air’ | The Hill
• IFLA: Providing access without connection | American Libraries

Academic Freedom & Campus Speech

• ‘I don’t think we should be afraid of protests’: Marquette faculty members speak out against policy requiring approval for demonstrations | Chronicle of Higher Education
• This professor compared a columnist to a bedbug. Then the columnist contacted the provost. | Chronicle of Higher Education
• They tried to work across racial and party lines. But now students at the U. of Mississippi want a Confederate statue moved. | Chronicle of Higher Education
• My life as a cautionary tale: Probing the limits of academic freedom | Chronicle of Higher Education
• Back to school–and is religion on the syllabus? | Freedom Forum Institute

Fake News, Free Press, Social Media

• What is Section 230 and why does Donald Trump want to change it? | Technology Review
• Trump allies target journalists over coverage deemed hostile to White House | New York Times
• Trump criticizes Fox, which “isn’t working for us anymore” | The Hill
• Online hate report sheds light on prevalance of social media hate| Forbes
• Ocasio-Cortez defends blocking people on Twitter | The Hill
• A Palestinian Teenager, Accepted to Harvard, Was Deported Because of His Friends’ Social-Media Posts | Chronicle of Higher Education
• YouTube to roll out separate site for kids | The Hill
• OpenAI Said Its Code Was Risky. Two Grads Re-Created It Anyway | Wired

First Amendment & Free Speech

• Conservative group argues First Amendment should apply to YouTube | Wall Street Journal
• Lawsuit Against Kentucky Clerk Who Denied Same-Sex Marriage Licenses to Continue | Law.com
• Don’t Use These Free-Speech Arguments Ever Again | The Atlantic “Most speech, hateful or not, is protected by the Constitution. To pretend otherwise is foolhardy.”

Around the Web

• How democracies die: An interview with Steven Levitsky, co-author of how democracies die | OIF Blog
• Kentucky principal who tried to ban LGBT books arrested for possessing and distributing child pornography | Newsweek

International Issues

• EU data caught in Facebook audio transcribing | Politico
• The not-so-great porn firewall of London | Newsroom
• Academic urges universities to get from under ‘the shadow of Bejing’ | Conversation (Australia)
• Academic freedom under pressure in Bangladesh | East Asia Forum
• Chinese censorship laws could prompt foreign book publishers to look elsewhere for printers | South China Morning Post
• Australia plans to block sites hosting extremist content during attacks | Ars Technica
• China intercepts WeChat texts from U.S. and abroad, researcher says | NPR

ALA News

• Volunteer to Serve on ALA, Council, and Joint Committees for 2020-2022
• Accepting Applications for 2020 Class of ALA Emerging Leaders
• Nominate a superstar librarian for the I Love My Librarian award
• 2020 ALA Annual Conference Program Proposals are Now Open

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

You can also find us at Facebook, Twitter, and online. Or email us at oif@ala.org