If you are a gamer, you know about Minecraft. And even if you have stayed away from the world of gaming, you may have heard about it too. Minecraft is an open-world game that never seems to go out of ‘Trending’. From YouTube to Twitch, Minecraft seems to have captured the hearts of people all over the world. The developers are great too – they are constantly trying to update the game, and bringing changes that will make the game modern and accessible for the changing demographic.
But few would ever have thought that a Minecraft library would help preserve anti-censorship.
Censorship as per Oxford is “the suppression or prohibition of any parts of books, films, news, etc. that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable or a threat to security”. It is oppressive and it destroys the notion of free speech. In a democratic society, censorship can be referred to as something similar to a crime. If you censor or manipulate the truth, you can win favors of the people in a wrong manner, and eventually, end up destroying democracy in its true sense.
Journalism thrives on anti-censorship – saying the truth as it is. However, many countries actively try to suppress speech and ensure that the news is manipulated to show a different version of the truth. The Media is controlled, and hence, becomes riddled with falsehood. This has resulted in a post-truth era that currently controls our perspective of the world.
But even now, there are a few people or organizations which stand out and resist censorship.
Reporters Without Borders or RSF has tied with Minecraft to ensure banned news and articles are available in countries that have censored them. The way to do it – build a Minecraft Library. About 24 builders collaborated and worked together from 16 different countries to make this Minecraft Library possible. It took around 250 hours to make this uncensored Minecraft library stand and become the world’s first in-game uncensored library.
Unbelievable, isn’t it? Who would have thought a game would finally revolt against oppressive censorship!
The Minecraft library structure is constructed with around 2.5 million Minecraft blocks. It has feature articles of about 160 countries, all indexed as press freedom. Exclusive features are placed in the exhibition halls of 5 famous countries: Vietnam, Russia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Mexico – countries known for active press censorship.
There’s another benefit of the Minecraft library. When a book is created, it can be accessed by anyone. They can read it, and there won’t be any data change on the server itself. Hence, journalists can use this platform to uphold the actual truth and fight against manipulated truth. Now, people from many different countries can finally read books that were censored or banned and identify if news pieces had been manipulated or not.
Reporters Without Borders teamed up with BlockWorks to design this Minecraft library. BlockWorks has stated that this was one of their most ambitious projects and that it served a value – press freedom. To complete this massive project, they not only worked with RSF but also collaborated with DDB and MediaMonks.
The Minecraft Library creators have explained how they were able to use the game mechanics to accomplish their mission. It was all made possible due to the freedom that the game provides to the users. One of the best things about Minecraft is that it is an open-world game. While the graphic content can seem like something from the 1990s with the pixelated world, that just lends to the fun of it. You can extract raw materials, build different structures, and collaborate with others in Minecraft. It is like ‘digital Lego’.
Minecraft also allows people to craft books. Minecraft books can have about a hundred pages, and it can be written on and read too. When people read it, they don’t have access to the data that created the book, and hence, the server or data remains protected from alteration.
It is quite clear why journalists have chosen Minecraft for building the uncensored library. The game might be 10 years old, but it is still very popular. Plus, the game offers a lot of options like collaborating with other people for projects. The game has millions of players worldwide, and many youngsters who take part would like to know the value of truth. When they see the truth by reading the banned articles, they will get a different view of their countries, and also understand how censorship works.
12th March – the World Day against Cyber Censorship was also the day this library opened for Minecraft players. With the hashtag #TruthFindsAWay, the message has spread out. Maybe Truth will find a way now through the Minecraft library. All images: uncensoredlibrary.com
