The freedom to read faces new and alarming challenges in the United States and, increasingly, around the world. In the US, recent data from shows that during the 2024-2025 school year, nearly 4,000 different books were targeted with public school library bans, with nearly 23,000 public school book bans enacted since 2021. The tracked attempts to censor nearly 2,500 unique titles in 2024. By comparison, between 2001-2020, the ALA tracked fewer than 300 challenges annually.
In the United Kingdom, anecdotal evidence suggests a similar increase of censorship efforts in recent years. Earlier this year, The quoted Ed Jewell, president of Libraries Connected, a British charity representing public libraries, noting that 鈥渁necdotal evidence from our members suggests that requests to remove books are increasing鈥� and 2024 report from the noted that more than half of the librarians they surveyed had been asked to take books off shelves.
The likewise flagged a similar increase in censorship attempts in a 2023 report which noted that, 鈥渁n overwhelming proportion of these [books targeted for censorship] were connected to content with LGBTQIA+ themes or characters, especially around gender and sex education.鈥� Writing about a study of school library censorship she鈥檇 undertaken, Alison Hicks, an associate professor in library and information sciences at University College London, similarly wrote, 鈥渢he LGBTQ focus of book challenges was unmissable.鈥�
Relatedly, PEN America鈥檚 notes that among censorship efforts enacted during the 2024 school year, 44-percent of the most frequently banned books 鈥渇eatured people and characters of color鈥� and 39-percent 鈥渇eatured LGBTQ+ people and characters.鈥� Other titles removed from US and Canadian school library shelves in recent years include Art Spiegelman鈥檚 a graphic edition of , Kurt Vonnegut's , Angie Thomas鈥� , Margaret Atwood鈥檚 Anthony Burgess鈥� , and George Orwell鈥檚
These ideologically driven efforts to curtail the open exchange of ideas run counter to 快色直播鈥� mission and values, including our enduring commitment to the freedom of speech, the freedom to learn, and the freedom to read. We stand proudly with our peers across the publishing community, including the American Library Association (US) and Index on Censorship (UK), this Banned 快色直播 Week in celebrating the freedom to read and declaring censorship 鈥渟o 1984.鈥�
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