The Brooklyn Public Library has announced that any teenager in America is now eligible for a Brooklyn Public Library card.
Teens can sign out ebooks + audiobooks from wherever they
live.
The move is designed to combat censorship, with some titles listed as "always available."
Oh nice. Seattle Public Library has created a membership type for "13 to 26 year olds anywhere in the US" to be able to sign out e and audiobooks as a response to those locales banning books...
I find it outrageous and incredibly offensive how often subtitles are censored.
I've experienced it on broadcast TV. On Amazon. On YouTube. And elsewhere.
Deaf people do not need swear words hidden. Those of us with hearing loss don't suddenly decide, "Ah, yes, because I can't hear fully, I don't want to experience swearing anymore."
Public library staff in an Alabama town have locked up the library and walked off their jobs after the library's director was fired. The director had refused to remove 113 books with LGBTQ+ content from circulation after being ordered to do so by a library board dominated by right-wing Christian fundamentalists.
Meta blocked a story critical of its climate change ad policies on all of its platform. An independent journalist asked permission to repost the story verbatim on her substack. It was blocked too.
Some jails allow book shipments from Amazon and big-box chains, while denying book shipments from independent bookstores. Now, an independent bookstore, Avid Bookshop, has filed a lawsuit alleging that this is unconstitutional.
Fight for your libraries. Don’t let them take away your library by defunding it out of providing vital services. Don’t let them shackle the library with rules meant to prevent the right people from getting the right book to change their life. Don’t let them close the doors, because you know they will never open again. Fight for the freedom to read and explore new ideas. Fight against censorship and denying people the materials their souls need. If a library closes, it will never open again. You couldn’t create libraries today. You want to loan out books? And people will just willingly give them back? Are you mad? Naïve, perhaps? Once a library closes its doors, it’s over. The book banners have won. Do not let them win. Fight for libraries. Fight for library workers. Fight for patrons. Fight for free people reading freely. #libraries#censorship#librarians#LibraryWorkers#LibraryPatrons#BookBans
Over the past few years all the major tech companies of the GAFAM have shadow-banned or literally banned most of the collectives using kolektiva.media. Now we've learned that the Turkish state has blocked access to our domain due to "distribution of terrorist propaganda". More than ever, the State, the cops and those in power want to keep revolutionary ideas and counter-information out of the mainstream.
Furthermore, with all the mainstream social media algorithms showing us almost nothing but ads, you may feel like you're now missing some good anarchist content you were enjoying in the past. If it's the case, you can subscribe to a Peertube channel's RSS feed or also subscribe to the newsletters of different projects to never miss a video.
Members of St. Marys five-person city commission, all of whom are members of an extreme Catholic religious sect, have threatened to pull the lease of the public library if they don't remove all LGBTQ+ and other "socially divisive" books from the shelves. Their efforts have drawn a warning from the ACLU of Kansas.
Really lovely how #censorship has been thriving in German institutions these last few months. Countless academics, writers and artists who have expressed solidarity with Palestine or dared to criticise Israel have had their contracts and engagements cancelled or withdrew themselves when asked to retract statements.
I hope one day there will be some realisation that this was deeply, deeply the wrong moral high horse to sit on.
Twitter/X has launched a massive purge against large accounts that have posted in support of Palestine. The purge has taken well-known activists, bloggers, podcasts, journalists such as Alan Mcleod, and even some from critical mainstream outlets like the Intercept’s Ken Klippenstein and Steven Zetti of the Texas Observer.
This is another reminder of why open and community owned platforms must be the backbone of social media.
For those of you not on the other platforms where scientists hang out, biologist Michael Eisen was just removed from the chief editor position of the prestigious journal @eLife, allegedly for retweeting an Onion piece sympathetic to Palestinians.
Book banning in the US is an organized campaign by a small minority.
' The majority of the 1,000-plus book challenges analyzed by The Post were filed by just 11 people.
Each of these people brought 10 or more challenges against books in their school district; one man filed 92 challenges. Together, these serial filers constituted 6% of all book challengers — but were responsible for 60% of all filings. '
“Librarians are being harassed in private Facebook groups. They’re receiving pressure from within and outside the school.”
But bookstores, libraries and book lovers of all kinds came together to fight back against the censorious, so-called READER act. From correspondent Matthew Patin: https://www.texasobserver.org/the-booksellers-revolt/
Mozilla's petition against in-browser censorship law (foundation.mozilla.org)
The French government is considering a law that would require web browsers – like Mozilla's Firefox – to block websites chosen by the government.
A Kansas town is threatening again to kick out the public library unless it removes LGBTQ+ books (www.kcur.org)
Members of St. Marys five-person city commission, all of whom are members of an extreme Catholic religious sect, have threatened to pull the lease of the public library if they don't remove all LGBTQ+ and other "socially divisive" books from the shelves. Their efforts have drawn a warning from the ACLU of Kansas.