An Uncensored Library Created in Minecraft Defies Authoritarianism

Censored articles from around the world find refuge in this massive Minecraft map

Reporters Without Borders is an international non-profit and non-governmental organization with the stated aim of safeguarding the right to freedom of information. In order to expand upon this goal, the organization has turned to an unlikely source: the video game Minecraft, and a 12.5 million-block neoclassical library containing banned journalism from around the world.

Video: The Uncensored Library — The Film

Sharing news and information, especially when it’s been banned by a government, is no easy task. How to disseminate — to share — that information becomes a matter of both undermining systems of control that seek to restrict it, and to present it in a manner that is accessible. If you can’t easily find and read the news, what good does it do?

That is why this project, one of the most innovative uses of Minecraft in history, is so flippen’ cool.

Minecraft as a digital home to press freedom

Minecraft as a digital home to press freedom

In many countries, websites, social media and blogs are controlled by oppressive leaders. Young people, in particular, are forced to grow up in systems where their opinion is heavily manipulated by governmental disinformation campaigns.

But even where almost all media is blocked or controlled, the world’s most successful computer game is still accessible. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) uses this loophole to bypass internet censorship to bring back the truth — within Minecraft.

In line with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which…