Minecraft 'loophole' Library Of Banned Journalism
Minecraft 'loophole' library of banned journalism By Tom Gerken BBC News, Washington DC
13 March 2020
It started as a forum project, and it has grown to be the best-selling videogame ever. However, Minecraft is now being used for something that even its creator couldn't have imagined.
The iconic game based around placing Lego-like blocks with more than 145 million players each month has been turned into a hub of free speech.
To host articles written by journalists that were censored online, a virtual library was meticulously designed.
You can read the entire work of Jamal Khashoggi. He was a journalist who was attacked by Saudi agents in 2018.
Minecraft has declined to comment.
Reporters Without Borders, a non profit organization, created the project. Blockworks designed the Minecraft library.
Christian Mihr, executive director of Reporters Without Borders Germany, told the BBC that Minecraft was good for the project as he believes it is not seen as a threat by governments which censor their media.
He stated that Minecraft was the best because of its versatility. It is accessible in every country. The game isn't censored in the same way as other games that are suspect of being politically motivated.
"There are large communities within each featured country, so that's how the idea came about - it's a loophole in censorship."
He explained that the authors were chosen to represent countries where media freedom was restricted so that people from these communities could access their work.
He clarified, however, that permissions had to be sought before republishing in a library.
"We didn’t add any content to the library without the consent of respective authors – if they’re alive.
"In the case of Jamal Khashoggi we spoke to family members - in respect of people who have been killed, and the safety of their families."
Nick Feamster, Neubauer Professor of Computer Science, at the University of Chicago, stated to the BBC that the library could beat the censors but was concerned about the response of governments.
He said that it was an interesting idea, but that there were still issues. The articles are being distributed online and governments will be aware. It won't be foolproof against a determined enemy.
He said that the strength of the library came from its use of entanglement - mixing up the censored material with the video game in the eyes of the censors.
He said, "By entangling the two things you force them all to share content." "You can't control one without the next."
Helmi Noman (a Research Affiliate of Berkman Klein Centre for Internet & Society) said that he believed the library would only have a small audience.
"The censored material is dynamic, varied, and distributed," he said. He added that in his research, "the users prefer approaches to avoiding pre-selecting and compartmentalizing content in certain spaces online."
"Any approach that fails to create a seamless browsing experience for the entire web, social networks, and direct messaging apps is likely to fail."
Due to the sheer number of simultaneous users, the server was often inaccessible. Despite this cap on simultaneous users, it has been visited by 3,889 players from 75 different countries and has been downloaded over 7,000 times.
After two hours of trying, the BBC managed to visit the virtual library and asked its patrons what they thought about it.
SoulfulGenie said they thought "it needs more books and a new section on North Korea" and another user called it "ingenious in many ways", adding that, as the library may be downloaded and reuploaded by other users, "it is easy to replicate and therefore hard to kill".
ReduxPL praised the library's appearance while other players focused on it.
Blockworks took around 250 hours for the design of the library. It was built by 24 people from 16 different nations.
James Delaney was the managing director of the design firm. He stated that the goal was for a classical design that was "on top of fantasy".
He said that it was plausible as a building, but is pushing the limits of possible.
"We chose a design with a neoclassical feel. It's similar in style to the British Museum and New York public libraries.
He said that Minecraft was improvisational and not influenced by any of these influences. Therefore, the builders were not limited by a set design.
"With many people working on the same project," he said, "people see each others' work and have to respond in real time. It is a reactive way of working that can change the look.
"The style is meant to symbolize power and authority. We wanted to flip that around.
"Instead of representing the power of the government or the regime, it's representing the free press."
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