Published by rwatstein November 2nd, 2008
in libraries and censorship.
Calvert County (Md.) library trustees voted unanimously October 21 to keep a controversial book about two male penguins where it is shelved—in the children’s section, along with other picture books. In December, Beth Bubser of Dunkirk filed a complaint about And Tango Makes Three to the county library staff, saying there was no warning on the book that it is about same-sex parents. The board affirmed Library Director Patricia Hofmann’s January decision to keep the book on the shelf.
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Published by rwatstein October 25th, 2008
in museums and censorship.
There are lots of things visitors can’t do in museums. But what about the things that museum professionals can’t (or feel they can’t) do? This week at the ASTC conference, Kathy McLean, Tom Rockwell, Eric Siegel and I presented a session called “You Can’t Do That in Museums!” in which we explored the peculiarities of self-censorship in the creation of museum exhibitions. You can view (and download) the slides and audio here, which feature our provocations and the discussion that followed.
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Published by rwatstein October 19th, 2008
in China, privacy and censorship.
That Chinese Internet companies censor communications is well known, but a new report from a Canadian computer scientist reveals a new front in their efforts to monitor users online. The study shows that users of TOM-Skype, a Chinese voice and chat service that is compatible with the popular Internet phone system Skype, have been subject to extensive surveillance. To make matters worse, the records of their chat conversations, as well as detailed personal information, were stored insecurely on the Web. Skype has previously acknowledged that its Chinese partner, TOM Online, blocks chat messages containing certain politically sensitive keywords. The new findings, however, reveal a level of surveillance that goes far beyond this.
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Published by rwatstein October 12th, 2008
in video, books and censorship.
Author Stephen Chbosky shares a letter he received from a reader of his young adult novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower (4:26). Alternately funny and moving, it demonstrates the effect that a book can have on a life—even (and especially) a book that some would have removed from library shelves. Filmed at ALA’s Banned Books Read-Out in Chicago September 27.
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Published by rwatstein October 5th, 2008
in libraries, video and censorship.
Author Judy Blume discusses book challenges and ALA’s Banned Books Week on Chicago TV (4:12). “It’s so contagious,” Blume said, “this fear that leads to trying to ban books. If libraries gave in to all the requests to ban books, what would we have left? Fun with Dick and Jane?”.
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Published by rwatstein September 27th, 2008
in libraries, censorship and library 2.0.
Margaret Brown-Sica and Jeffrey Beall write: “It’s possible for library users to abuse library 2.0 applications by uploading words, pictures, or other content that constitute hate speech. Universities and colleges today view hate speech as outside the realm of protected speech because it violates the terms of most codes of conduct and merits decisive action. Also, many libraries are big players in the overall college mission to value and promote diversity. Perhaps nothing can poison this more than a library website filled with racist, homophobic, or other defamatory speech.”
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Published by rwatstein September 27th, 2008
in archives and censorship.
While researching my book on the history of presidential libraries, I discovered a shocking but perhaps not surprising situation: the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is improperly withholding its own records. Theoretically a non-partisan as well as non-political agency, NARA is at the center of some of the most controversial issues of our time, including government secrecy, executive privilege, and timely access to presidential records. Rather than abide by legislative requirements and professional standards, NARA has chosen to avoid accessioning and processing many (if not most) of its own records dating back more than forty years. Worse, officials have blocked access to the records, perhaps due to concerns over possible criticism of the agency.
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Published by rwatstein September 21st, 2008
in libraries and censorship.
Ever heard Hollywood liberals talk about suspected jihadists the way they talk of suspected GOP “book-banners”? The 9/11 attacks didn’t turn celebrity leftists into hawks. But the minute they started reading false rumors about Sarah Palin restricting access to “Daddy’s Roommate” and “Heather Has Two Mommies” in her hometown library, Tinseltown’s doves became militant warmongers.
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The American Library Association (ALA) opposes book banning and censorship in any form, and supports librarians whenever they resist censorship in their libraries. Since our society is so diverse, libraries have a responsibility to provide materials that reflect the interests of all of their patrons. Each year, the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom receives hundreds of reports on books and other materials that were “challenged” (their removal from school or library shelves was requested). The ALA estimates the number reported represents only about a quarter of the actual challenges.
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Published by rwatstein July 12th, 2008
in internet and censorship.
Rant all you want in a public park. A police officer generally won’t eject you for your remarks alone, however unpopular or provocative. Say it on the Internet, and you’ll find that free speech and other constitutional rights are anything but guaranteed.
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For a second consecutive year, Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell’s award-winning And Tango Makes Three, a children’s book about two male penguins caring for an orphaned egg, tops the list of ALA’s 10 Most Challenged Books of 2007. Three books are new to the list: Olive’s Ocean, by Kevin Henkes; The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman; and TTYL, by Lauren Myracle.
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Published by rwatstein April 6th, 2008
in information, censorship and databases.
A U.S. government-funded medical information site that bills itself as the world’s largest database on reproductive health has quietly begun to block searches on the word “abortion,” concealing nearly 25,000 search results. Called Popline, the search site is run by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Maryland. It’s funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, the federal office in charge of providing foreign aid, including health care funding, to developing nations.
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Published by rwatstein April 6th, 2008
in education, digital and censorship.
Last year, the Court ducked an opportunity to determine in Morse v. Frederick whether public schools have authority to restrict student speech that occurs off of school grounds. The Court’s refusal to address this issue was unfortunate. For several decades lower courts have struggled to determine when, if ever, public schools should have the power to restrict student expression that does not occur on school grounds during school hours. In the last several years, however, courts have struggled with this same question in a new context — the digital media. Around the country, increasing numbers of courts have been forced to confront the authority of public schools to punish students for speech on the Internet. In most cases, students are challenging punishments they received for creating fake websites mocking their teachers or school administrators or for making offensive comments on websites or instant messages. More often than not, the lower courts are ruling in favor of the schools.
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Published by rwatstein March 29th, 2008
in China, Pew Research, internet and censorship.
Many Americans assume that China’s internet users are unhappy about their government’s control of the internet, but a new survey by Chinese researchers finds most Chinese say they approve of internet regulation, especially by the government.
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Published by rwatstein March 3rd, 2008
in YouTube and censorship.
Millions of YouTube fans around the globe lost access to the video sharing site that has come to define new media. But the blame could not be laid at the feet of the site’s rivals; instead, Sunday’s outage was blamed on the Pakistani government, which attempted to block the site because of offensive content. According to a Washington Post report, YouTube, which was only to be shut down in Pakistan, became a worldwide casualty when a local telecom company charged with muzzling the site inadvertently identified itself as the fastest route to YouTube. The result was that all traffic — as opposed to just Pakistani traffic — was sent to a “black hole.”
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Published by rwatstein January 5th, 2008
in YouTube, China, video and censorship.
China has decided to restrict the broadcasting of Internet videos — including those posted on video-sharing Web sites — to sites run by state-controlled companies and require providers to report questionable content to the government. It wasn’t immediately clear how the new rules would affect YouTube and other providers of Internet video that host Web sites available in China but are based in other countries.
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Published by rwatstein December 29th, 2007
in information and censorship.
Congress has finally adopted legislation that promises to cut through much of the red tape and outright obstructionism that often hampers requests for public information under the federal Freedom of Information Act. Among other things, the bill sets up a tracking system for FOIA requests that take longer than 10 days to process. It also penalizes agencies for sluggish responses to requests for information (which have been known to drag on for 20 years).
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Published by rwatstein December 16th, 2007
in YouTube, China and censorship.
By any reckoning, China should be an important new territory for YouTube. The country is the world’s second-largest Internet market, after the U.S., it’s rapidly beefing up its broadband infrastructure, and it’s home to millions of Net-savvy youths who love posting videos online. The Backdorm Boys, a Chinese-student singing duo, was one of the first breakout hits from online video, with their lip-synching clips recorded in their dormitory room winning fans worldwide. Moreover, YouTube owner Google (GOOG) is making a big push in the mainland, poaching top Microsoft (MSFT) executive Kai-Fu Lee two years ago to spearhead the search engine’s drive into China. In October, YouTube made its first moves in Greater China, launching Chinese versions in Hong Kong and Taiwan in October. But in China, YouTube is conspicuous by its official absence. It hasn’t launched a mainland service yet and Chinese who log onto the company’s U.S. site from China often complain that the site is inaccessible.
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Published by rwatstein December 9th, 2007
in Yahoo and censorship.
For a company that ostensibly believes in the Internet’s liberating power, Yahoo has a gallingly backward understanding of the value of free expression. The company helped Beijing’s state police uncover the Internet identities of two Chinese journalists, who were handed 10 years in prison for disseminating pro-democracy writings. Testifying before Congress last year about one case, Yahoo’s legal counsel said the company was unaware of the nature of the investigation. Did he miss the language about providing “state secrets to foreign entities” — a red flag for a political prosecution?
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Published by rwatstein December 1st, 2007
in YouTube and censorship.
Video sharing website YouTube is refusing to filter out threatening material, despite calls for more restrictions in the wake of the school shooting in Finland. Pekka-Eric Auvinen, 18, used YouTube to publicise his plans to attack his high school in Tuusula, hours before he killed eight people then shot himself. But Peter Fleischer, privacy counsel at Google, which bought YouTube last year, said the website was not considering passing more information to the police to avert such events. “Logistically we couldn’t do pre-screening,” he said. “We don’t want to become censors of the web.”
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Published by rwatstein December 1st, 2007
in research, digital and censorship.
In an information society, wealth and power are increasingly linked to access to knowledge and control over telecommunications media. Struggles over access to digital media in particular are presenting uniquely contentious First Amendment problems. The creation of about 200 million blogs worldwide has triggered legal action and legislative reform aimed at alleged trademark infringement by bloggers and cybersquatters. Authors and publishers seek expanded rights to curtail unauthorized digital uses for which they are not being compensated, and have sued Google for digitizing and indexing tens of millions of the world’s books and periodicals. Finally, Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and other Internet and e-commerce firms are trying to beat back plans by the nation’s cable and telephone companies to finance upgrades to their networks by levying discriminatory fees on search engines, as well as on Internet content providers and aggregators. Internet users have often been on the losing side of these controversies, as the economic model increasingly adopted by the Supreme Court is that in order to reward corporations for collecting or disseminating information, its free flow in print and electronic form must often be impeded, and its cost to the user increased. This model threatens to empower broadband companies, copyright holders, and trademark owners to restrict the right of the public to utilize digital media for purposes of free speech.
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Published by rwatstein November 3rd, 2007
in Library of Congress and censorship.
Librarian of Congress James H. Billington linked the free flow of knowledge to the spread of freedom around the world during a speech Oct. 30 at Wake Forest University’s Fall Convocation in Wait Chapel. In an address titled “The Future of Freedom,” Billington traced the development of freedom in the United States as “our most cherished national ideal” and examined the challenges posed today by short-term thinking as well as the opportunities afforded by new information technologies.
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Published by rwatstein October 27th, 2007
in China, internet and censorship.
At first, Liu Xiaoyuan just fumed when his online journal postings disappeared with no explanation. Then he decided to do something few if any of China’s censored bloggers had tried. He sued his service provider. Liu’s frustration is hardly unique. For China’s 162 million Web users, surfing the Internet can be like running an obstacle course with blocked Web sites, partial search results, and posts disappearing at every turn.
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According to the New York Times, the Standardized Chapel Library Project, an initiative of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, intends to bar access to library materials that, according to the Bureau of Prisons, ”discriminate, disparage, advocate violence or radicalize.” The initiative was created in response to concerns that prisons were becoming recruiting grounds for militant Islamic and other religious groups. The policy requires chaplains to remove books from chapel libraries unless the book appears on a list of 150 approved texts. The program has resulted in the elimination of thousands of religious texts from prison chapel libraries that were purchased by the prisons, or donated by churches and religious groups.
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The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) is pleased to announce Banned Books Week activities for librarians and the general public in virtual worlds Second Life, Teen Second Life and on social networking sites MySpace and Facebook. ALA is working with other library partners to provide an interactive experience centered on Banned Books Week, September 29-October 6, 2007, to help librarians and others to feel comfortable in social networking spaces and to reach out to new audiences. Partners include Alliance Library System, Alliance Second Life Library, TAP Information Services and the new ALA membership group Virtual Communities and Libraries.
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Published by rwatstein September 22nd, 2007
in Google and censorship.
There are several reports across multiple forums about a large update at Google. It appears people are noticing large search results shifts at Google Web Search. Some are obviously happy with the changes, such as one user at Search Engine Watch Forums and an other user at DigitalPoint Forums and some are not. A WebmasterWorld thread has been tracking this update in more detail.
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Published by rwatstein September 22nd, 2007
in YouTube and censorship.
Thailand is seeking to block clips on video-sharing Web site YouTube that accuse the chief royal adviser of masterminding last year’s bloodless coup, a top Justice Ministry official said on Friday. The government, which lifted a five-month ban on YouTube in August after it agreed to block clips deemed offensive to revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, was seeking a court order to block two video clips posted recently on www.youtube.com.
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