August 25, 2017 – Collated by OIF Staff and News Interns

Intellectual Freedom Highlights

• Webinar: Intellectual freedom is not just about censorship! | Wednesday, Sept 13, 2017 @ 5 – 6 pm EDT, presented by Michelle Luhtala and Kristin Pekoll
• Judge: ‘Racial animus’ behind Arizona ban on Mexican-American studies | Arizona Capitol Times; “Racism was behind an Arizona ban on ethnic studies that shuttered a popular Mexican-American Studies program, a federal judge said Tuesday. U.S. District Judge A. Wallace Tashima found that the state enacted the ban with discriminatory intent.”
  • District judge finds Arizona anti-ethnic studies law violates Fourteenth and First Amendments | Constitutional Law Prof Blog

Censorship

• Cambridge University Press accused of ‘selling its soul’ over Chinese censorship | The Guardian
  • Cambridge University Press backs down over China censorship | The Guardian
  • Blunt instrument? What a list of banned articles says about China’s censors | U.S. News & World Report
• The Guardian view on censoring the internet: necessary, but not easy | The Guardian
• NCAC demands artspace restore artwork featuring Native American swastika symbols | NCAC blog
• Google explains why it banned the app for Gab, a right-wing Twitter rival| Ars Technica

Privacy

• A Judge Said The Government Can Search Data About A Trump Protest Website, But Under His Supervision  | Buzzfeed
  • ALA, FTRF join over 60 public interest and civil liberties groups in sending a letter to Attorney General Sessions expressing concern over the Justice Department’s demand for information associated with a protest-organizing website. Read the coalition press release.
• While Congress kills internet privacy, states take a stand for users | The Hill
• India Supreme Court rules privacy a ‘fundamental right’ in landmark case | CNN
• Lip-reading CCTV could soon capture shoppers’ comments for big companies | The Herald
• To protect genetic privacy, encrypt your DNA | Wired
• Uber Settles with FTC Over Allegations of False Privacy and Security Claims | Lexology
• Plex changes its new privacy policy after backlash, clarified it’s not trying to see what’s in your library | Tech Crunch
• See this week’s privacy updates on the Choose Privacy Week blog.

Access

• Let’s pretend it never happened | Intellectual Freedom Blog; “As a profession we are concerned with the integrity of information, whether we agree with it or not. If something is to be removed, it is because it is outdated, or being updated, not because it offends us politically. For many years, across many different nations, science and politics have always shared an uneasy relationship. In the United States in 2017, it’s easy to see now who is holding the upper hand. The stakes couldn’t be higher.”
• While California is teaching inmates to code, other states ban them from teaching themselves | MuckRock
• As libraries go digital, costs remain tangible| Chronicle for Higher Education
• How to get free Kindle books with your library card | Wired
• GPO Requests Recommendations to Update Federal Deposit Library Rules | Library Journal
• Now online: IFLA Library Map of the World – an advocacy tool for all! | IFLA

Academic Freedom/ Campus Speech

• Campus speech: Accusations, harassment, threats | Intellectual Freedom Blog
• Ann Coulter, Milo Yiannopoulos, Stephen Bannon Are Invited to Speak at UC-Berkeley | Chronicle for Higher Education
• A professor says she was penalized for an instructor’s tweet | Chronicle for Higher Education
• After white-supremacist violence, UVa will review what activities are allowable on campus | Chronicle for Higher Education

First Amendment Issues

• Federal Appeals Court rules against H.S. football coach over post-game prayers | Education Week
• How the American right co-opted the idea of free speech | Quartz
• Third Circuit Gives TSA Agent Free Pass for First Amendment Violation | Constitutional Law Prof Blog
• Second Circuit rules town ordinance prohibiting day labor solicitation unconstitutional | Constitutional Law Prof Blog
• The shady business of regulating shady businesses | Newseum Institute

Hate Speech

• Free speech issues raised by internet companies denying service to neo-Nazi sites | The Verdict
  • Spotify starts banning neo-Nazi bands; Google, Deezer and CD Baby pledge to follow suit | Variety
  • Far-right groups find new homes on the Web, with difficulty | San Francisco Chronicle
  • Tech censorship of white supremacists draws criticism from within industry | Wall Street Journal
• Defining ‘Hate Speech’ Online Is an Imperfect Art | Wired
• Why can’t the government ban hate speech? Inside the Supreme Court’s reasoning | Salon
• Online sleuths are outing racists, but should they? | Fast Company
• Unlikely allies join fight to protect free speech on the internet | NPR
• Yes, expose the neo-Nazis. Then recruit them back to humanity | Wired
• Why the Tor Project refuses to censor neo-Nazi websites, child porn and drug dealing | International Business Times
• Should protesters be allowed to have guns? | Politico
• Judge Andrew Napolitano: Why hate speech is always protected | Fox News
• Fighting Neo-Nazis and the future of free expression | Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Americans wary of extending free speech to extremists | YouGov
• The most shortsighted attack on free speech in modern U.S. history | The Atlantic
• When hate meets hoax | ProPublica
• Let them march | Newseum Institute

Around the Web

• Transgender reveal in kindergarten class leaves parents feeling “betrayed” | CBS New
• #ownvoices | Intellectual Freedom Blog
• Statement on confederate memorials: Confronting difficult history | National Trust for Historic Preservation
• Charlottesville violence poses new challenges for libraries | American Libraries
• Reaction video deemed fair use in YouTuber court battle | Ars Technica

International Issues

• You can be forgotten online, but not in the British Library | Bloomberg
• This woman was detained by anti-terror police for reading a book about Syrian art. She wants to know why. | BuzzFeed
• Putin says government’s say in filtering info content should be reduced to minimum | TASS
• Malaysian political cartoonist Zunar sues police for unlawful arrest, seizure of books | Global Voices
• ‘A chilling effect’: Academics accuse University of Melbourne of shutting down speech| The Age
• Police hold more than 20 million facial recognition images | Sky News (UK)

ALA News

• Libraries invited to join social media activity this Banned Books Week
• Online Webinar: Back to School | Tuesday, Aug 29 @ 1 pm Central; Will feature new books and an update on Banned Books Week
• New e-Forum 9/5: Power that is Moral: Cataloging and Ethics | ALCTS; ”
  At ALA Annual in June 2017, Elizabeth Shoemaker and Violet Fox spoke at the CaMMS Forum about “Power That Is Moral: Creating a Cataloging Code of Ethics”. This e-Forum is designed to continue that discussion about creating a document that would help guide ethical cataloging decisions.”

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