Book bans reach all-time high, led by Texas and Florida and fueled by AI

Book bans reached an all-time high this year as political pressure and AI fuel a spike in titles taken off the shelves. 

Almost 12,000 books were banned between 2025 and 2026, a 5,000-book jump from the previous year, according to a Monday report by PEN America, a free-speech organization. 

The vast majority of the book bans are coming out of Texas and Florida, with an estimated 8,100 and 3,200 titles revoked, respectively.  

“The fact that a huge number, a strong majority, I would say, of the bans that we calculated in Texas and Florida — we were only able to find out about because of public information requests,” said Philomena Polefrone, senior manager for Freedom to Read at PEN America, adding it has become difficult to count book bans based on local reporting.   

“We have needed to pivot a little bit and start going directly to the source for information. And so, I would also say that the fact that Texas and Florida are very overrepresented in our report this year doesn’t indicate that there aren’t bans in other states. It indicates that we have better information in Texas and Florida,” Polefrone added. 

Republicans in Florida and Texas have prioritized education reform, including sweeping efforts to get certain books out of classrooms and libraries.

Part of the jump is likely due to a law in Texas that went into effect September 2025 that restricted sexually explicit or harmful content in school libraries and gave parents greater access to what was in those libraries. 

Through a public records request, the Texas Freedom to Read Project found multiple schools using AI to vet books. In some cases, AI recommended removing a........

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