Open Culture: “…In response to this concerning trend, the Brooklyn Public Library has made a bold move: For a limited time, the library will offer a free eCard to any person aged 13 to 21 across the United States, allowing them free access to 500,000 digital books, including many censored books. The Chief Librarian for… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Free Speech
How to Kill a Newspaper
The Atlantic: The Aspen Time – How a Soviet-born developer and a West Virginia billionaire destroyed a 141-year-old Colorado newspaper Continue Reading
Texas school district officials order 41 books off of library shelves
The Texas Tribune: “Ahead of the first day of school, the Keller Independent School District is removing all books that were challenged last year within the school district, including the Bible, “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison and a graphic novel adaptation of Anne Frank’s “The Diary of Young Girl.” “Attached is a list of… Continue Reading
American Library Association (ALA) Condemns Proposed State Legislation Limiting Access to Information on Reproductive Health
“The Executive Board of the American Library Association (ALA) issued the following statement in response to proposed state legislation that would censor library materials or put at risk library workers who provide access to information, including information on abortion or any aspect of reproductive health care. ALA stands committed to the free, fair, and unrestricted… Continue Reading
What’s Happening With The Vinton Public Library
Iowa Starting Line – “Residents of a small Iowa town criticized their library’s LGBTQ staff and their displaying of LGBTQ-related books until most of the staff quit. Now, the town’s library is closed for the foreseeable future. After having the same library director for 32 years, the Vinton Public Library can’t seem to keep the… Continue Reading
PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans
Center for Data Innovation: “PEN America, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization dedicated to free expression through literature, has created a dataset tracking books banned or restricted in school classrooms and libraries in the United States from July 2021 to March 2022. The dataset contains the book’s name and author, the school district, the month of challenge… Continue Reading
2022 Edition – A Democracy Crisis In The Making
This report is a partnership between the States United Democracy Center, Law Forward and Protect Democracy: “…We issued our first Report less than four months after the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, itself a violent attempt to subvert the voters’ choice. In that Report, we identified 148 bills that had been filed… Continue Reading
With Rising Book Bans, Librarians Have Come Under Attack
The New York Times: “…As highly visible and politicized book bans have exploded across the country, librarians — accustomed to being seen as dedicated public servants in their communities — have found themselves on the front lines of an acrimonious culture war, with their careers and their personal reputations at risk. They have been labeled… Continue Reading
Copyright Protections for Press Publishers
USPTO: “The Copyright Office has concluded a public study evaluating the effectiveness of current copyright protections for publishers in the United States, with a focus on press publishers. The Office’s report—Copyright Protections for Press Publishers—is linked on the right side of this page. In their letter requesting this study, six members of Congress pointed to… Continue Reading
International Attitudes Toward the U.S., NATO and Russia in a Time of Crisis
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has brought war to Europe at a scale unseen since the 1940s. In response, the United States and its NATO allies have supplied Ukrainian defense forces with weapons and training, while millions of refugees have fled into neighboring countries. The war has been the center of international attention for months, and… Continue Reading
A Supreme Court speech showdown is coming, and nobody knows what to expect
The Verge: “The US Supreme Court is poised to consider a question with seismic consequences for online speech. Over the past year, laws in Texas and Florida have set up a legal battle over whether the First Amendment protects social networks’ right to curate user-generated content or whether these sites should be treated more like… Continue Reading
Confronting Misinformation in the Age of Cheap Speech
LawFare: “In 1995, Eugene Volokh published a law review article in which he predicted that the rapidly growing internet would “dramatically reduce the costs of distributing speech” and that “the new media order that these technologies will bring will be much more democratic and diverse than the environment we see now.” The concept, which Volokh… Continue Reading
