High-end graphics, cinematic plotlines, and challenging boss battles aren’t what made Minecraft one of the most popular video games of all time. After nearly 15 years, millions of people still play it every day because it doesn’t offer any of those features. Instead, Minecraft hinges exploring, building, and experimenting inside a virtually infinite digital universe. For many players, logging onto a server provides a sense of freedom that the real world sadly denies them.
It’s not symbolic, either. Minecraft’s digital freedom produces tangible benefits that extend far beyond the game itself. In 2020, the international press advocacy organization Reporters Without Borders (also known as Reporters Sans Frontières, or RSF) announced the Uncensored Library, an online repository filled with books, essays, and articles by individuals routinely silenced by their authoritarian governments. But instead of stashing the collection in an unassuming corner of the game, RSF and the Minecraft design collective BlockWorks built a massive, gorgeous neoclassical library located on a picturesque, pixelated island.
“Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right, and yet, there are countries that seek to censor their citizens or prevent them from accessing certain information,” RSF explais. “This is why The Uncensored Library exists; a grand digital library meant to combat censorship – and it’s all accessible through Minecraft.”
Even six years after its debut, the project regularly goes viral on social media, and receives routine updates from RSF and BlockWorks. There is even a map to guide visitors through the digital institution’s multiple wings that are organized by country. Until recently, the library hosted materials from writers contending with particularly repressive governments across eight nations, including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Egypt. Earlier this year, RSF added a section for the United States following the Trump administration’s pushbacks on the press.
“Often, suppressing stories takes a less overt form than direct censorship,” RSF North America executive director Clayton Weimers said at the time, adding that the decision to include the U.S. was intended to highlight that “fully authoritarian regimes do not have a monopoly on free press violations.”
The Uncensored Library is accessible either by downloading the files to your personal computer, or accessing the visit.uncensoredlibrary.com server while playing Minecraft.
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