Reporters Without Borders
RSF Uncensored Library Minecraft.RSF Uncensored Library Minecraft.
- In many authoritarian countries where news sources and books are censored, the video game "Minecraft" is not.
- So, a group of designers made a library within "Minecraft" full of information that people in those countries, and elsewhere around the world, can access.
- The project, called "The Unlicensed Library," was organized for the World Day Against Censorship by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a press freedom NGO that tracks censorship, legal action against journalists, and disinformation.
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Media freedom advocates are meeting people where they are, and apparently, that's "Minecraft." The block-building game, which Microsoft bought in 2014 for $2.5 billion, has been one of the most popular games worldwide over the last 10 years. As of September, it had a staggering 112 million active players every month, a number that has reportedly grown to 145 million.
Reporters Without Borders created "The Uncensored Library" within "Minecraft" as what it calls a "loophole to overcome censorship." The digital library in an open "Minecraft" server has articles and information that has been censored in many countries, but is accessible through the game. RSF said that it chose "Minecraft" because it is available in many more places than sensitive information likely to be censored. For example, Yulia Berezovskaia, editor-in-chief of the Russian news site grani.ru, which is blocked in Russia, said she's working with RSF to republish articles from her website on "Minecraft."
Minecraft declined to comment.
