Intellectual Freedom News 9/21/18
September 21, 2018 – Collated by OIF Staff and News Editors
Intellectual Freedom Highlights
- Dear Banned Author | What would you say to your favorite banned and challenged author? This Banned Books Week (September 23-29), we’re hosting a Dear Banned Author letter-writing campaign, and we hope you’ll join us! Visit the website to find author addresses, programming tools and printable postcards.
Censorship
- Drag Queen Story Time still happening after Lafayette council avoids taking position on it | The Advocate (LA)
- Two Religious Organizations File Suit In Attempt To Stop Drag Queen Story Time At Lafayette Library | KADN-TV (Lafayette LA)
- Drag storytimes bring fierceness—and fierce opposition | American Libraries
- Book of Oatmeal.com comic strips defaced as ‘filthy’ and ’18+’ by non-borrower | OIF Blog
- Prison First Amendment fight goes to U.S. Supreme Court | News Herald (FL)
- Review group could look at book complaints soon | Cody Enterprise (WY)
- The board of a West Virginia library reverses decision to refuse ‘Fear’ | Washington Post
- Rumford Public Library’s display of banned books will stay | Sun Journal (ME)
- Texas board votes to eliminate Hillary Clinton, Helen Keller from history curriculum | Dallas News (TX)
- How do controversial books make it onto school-approved lists? | Good4Utah (ABC4); “South Jordan high-schooler says her assigned reading is not age-appropriate”
- DC to censor full frontal nudity In future ‘Batman: Damned’ printings | Hollywood Reporter
- Student newspaper censorship: Burlington High School editors win First Amendment battle | Burlington Free Press
- New policies coming to Vt. school following claims of student censorship | NECN.com (VT)
- Vermont high school students use New Voices law to win censorship dispute | Student Press Law Center
- Maine pastors attempt to remove ‘My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness’ manga from library display | Anime News Network
- New Jersey parent outraged ‘My Name is Osama’ story taught on September 11 anniversary | Newsweek
- Target is bleeping out book descriptions, removing words like ‘Nazis’ and ‘queer’ | Mercury News
- Target responds to publisher complaints, but redactions persist | Publishers Weekly
- Marathon County Library rules on transgender issues book placement | WSAU
- Scales on censorship: Questioning ‘The Hate U Give’ | School Library Journal
Banned Books Week
- Get ready for Banned Books Week 2018 with new handbook | American Booksellers Association
- Celebrate Banned Books Week with GNs signed by Art Spiegelman, Neil Gaiman, Jeff Smith, & Many More! | Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
- Censored works get center stage in ‘Banned Together’ at Bishop Arts Theatre Center | Dallas News
- Speaking Out: Voicing Movements in the Face of Censorship (Free Webinar) | SAGE Publishing, American Library Association, Index on Censorship
- Kimberly Butler’s “CENSORED” photo exhibition kicks off “Banned Books Week” | “CENSORED” features 20 provocative photos from Kimberly Butler’s forthcoming book of the same name. The photos she chose for this unique exhibition illustrate that “banning books silences stories” – the theme of this year’s “Banned Books Week” event – and that everyone needs to speak out against censorship.
- Crystallized banned books on display | “The crystallized banned book series celebrates and immortalizes the beauty, power and timelessness of books,” said the artist.
- More photos from the exhibit can be found on BannedBooks.com
- Banned Books Week: Censorship of Books and More | Knowledge Quest
- Celebrate Banned Books Week at your library with Image Comics’ Library livestreams | CBLDF
- Banned Books Week 2018 focuses on author and reader activism | ALA News
Privacy
- Revealed: The Justice Dept’s secret rules for targeting journalists with FISA court orders | Freedom of the Press Foundation
- Government can spy on journalists in the U.S. using invasive foreign intelligence process | The Intercept
- Congress Fails To Include A Single Consumer Advocate In Upcoming Privacy Hearing | TechDirt
- New Pressure on Google and YouTube Over Children’s Data | New York Times
- Representatives press Google on kids data collection issues | Multichannel News
- Call for smart home devices to bake in privacy safeguards for kids | Tech Crunch
- Sen. Harris tells federal agencies to get serious about facial recognition risks | Tech Crunch
- Privacy group sues archives for Kavanaugh surveillance records | Bloomberg
See this week’s additional privacy news and updates on the Choose Privacy Everyday blog.
Net Neutrality and Broadband Access
- Where does Kavanaugh stand on privacy, net neutrality, 1st Amendment? | OIF Blog
- Repealed net neutrality regulations wouldn’t have applied to Santa Clara county firefighters | Forbes
- Despite data caps and throttling, industry says mobile can replace home Internet | Ars Technica
- Everybody complains about the Rural Broadband Divide, but nobody does anything about it | Benton Foundation
- Kamala Harris asks Kavanaugh to recuse himself from upcoming net neutrality cases | Daily Dot
- Ajit Pai calls California’s net neutrality rules “illegal” | Ars Technica
Access
- Pennsylvania to end prison book donations, forcing inmates onto pricey eBook platform | Boing Boing
- ALA, library community work to support hurricane Florence recovery efforts | American Libraries
- U. of Pennsylvania says it will be first Ivy to offer online bachelor’s degree | Chronicle of Higher Education
- Graphic novelizations in the ELA classroom | Knowledge Quest
- Repurpose with a purpose | American LIbraries
Copyright
- Senate passes copyright bill to end 140-year protection for old songs | Ars Technica
- U.S. and Europe regulators make some waves towards copyright protection | Forbes
Free Press, Social Media, and Fake News
- Media manipulation, strategic amplification, and responsible journalism | Data & Society
- Louisiana AG Jeff Landry wants to break up social media giants | Louisiana Advocate
- The Deliberate Awfulness of Social Media | The New Yorker
- Alternative Influence: Broadcasting the Reactionary Right on YouTube | Data & Society
- The Alt-Right Are Savvy Internet Users. Stop Letting Them Surprise You | Wired
- Who gets their news from which social media sites? | Wired
- Teaching information literacy in a world of misinformation | Knowledge Quest
Academic Freedom & Campus Speech
- Academic freedom and librarians: A natural fit | Inside Higher Ed
- A blow to academic freedom — from the top of the University of Texas | Trib Talk
- University needs to value and support its librarians | The Daily Californian
- Professor files free speech lawsuit against Poly| The Ledger (FL)
First Amendment and Free Speech
- “The Schoolhouse Gate”: The Unpopularity of Free Speech in Public Schools | Volokh Conspiracy
- “The Schoolhouse Gate”: The Constitution Goes to School | Volokh Conspiracy
- Editorial: First for good reason | Caledonian Record (VT)
- What students are saying about: freedom of speech, teacher diversity and the soul of America | New York Times
- The liberal defense of campus free speech is admirable but inadequate | The Federalist
- Want to defend democracy? Start with your public library. | Washington Post
- Daily Read: Some women legal scholars on the First Amendment | Constitutional Law Prof Blog
Around the Web
- Of, by, and for the people: Best small library in America 2018 | Library Journal
- Happy birthday, Craig Thompson! | OIF Blog
- Convincing despite its flaws: A review of Nadine Strossen’s HATE: Why We Should Resist It with Free Speech, Not Censorship | OIF Blog
- Isabel Allende to receive honorary National Book Award medal | My Twin Tiers
- Parents call pilot textbook political propaganda for Gavin Newsom | Sacramento Bee (CA)
- How controversial topics inspire deeper learning | eSchool News
International Issues
- Excluding the Sun from our festival isn’t censorship, it’s Hillsborough solidarity | The Guardian
- A quiet shift in stance on the right to be forgotten | The Times (UK)
- This Vietnamese singer tried to battle state censorship. Now she only performs there in secret. | Washington Post
- The two biggest threats to academic freedom have come together in China | Quartz
- Google’s Chinese search engine will censor results, provide gov’t-approved pollution data | Tech Dirt
- Does the EU’s controversial ‘upload filter’ set a precedent for censorship? | Inside Sources
- Google China prototype links searches to phone numbers | The Intercept
ALA News
- An updated how-to-do-it manual for building digital libraries
- Volunteer to serve on ALA, Council, and joint committees for 2019 – 2021
- Nominations for I Love My Librarian Award closing Oct. 1
- Libraries invited to apply for Great Stories Club grants on Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation
- ALA’s new Graphic Novels & Comics Round Table is open for membership
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