Minecraft 'loophole' library of banned journalism Tom Gerken BBC News, Washington DC
13 March 2020
It was initially an online forum project and has since grown to become the most played video game ever. But now Minecraft is being used in a way that its creator could never have imagined.
The center of free speech has taken the infamous game of putting Lego-like blocks in the same space with more than 145,000,000 people each month, and has turned it into an icon.
A virtual library was carefully designed to host journalistic articles that were censored online.
Work of Jamal Khashoggi, the journalist killed by Saudi agents in the year 2018 can be found among the myriad of books available in the library.
Minecraft declined to make a comment.
Reporters Without Borders, a non-profit organization that aims to ensure the privacy of information throughout the world, created the project. Blockworks, the design studio responsible for the Minecraft library, created it.
Christian Mihr, executive director of Reporters Without Borders Germany, told the BBC that Minecraft was good for the project since he believes it is not considered a threat by governments which censor their media.
"We have chosen Minecraft because of its reach," he said. "It is available in every nation. The game is not censored like other games that are suspected of being political.
"There are big communities in each of the countries featured and that's the reason the idea came up as an opportunity to bypass censorship."
The authors were selected to represent countries where press was censored, to ensure that people from those communities could access their work.
He also clarified that permissions were sought prior to publishing in the library.
"We didn't include any material in the library without the approval of the authors themselves - if they're alive.
"In the case of Jamal Khashoggi we have spoken to family members - with respect of people who were killed, and for the safety of their families."
Nick Feamster, Neubauer Professor of Computer Science at the University of Chicago Nick Feamster, Neubauer Professor of Computer Science at the University of Chicago, told BBC that the library could be effective in getting past the censors, however, he was worried about the way governments would react.
He said it was an interesting concept, but that there were still issues. Governments will be aware as the articles are spreading all over the internet. It's not impervious to an adversary who is determined.
He explained that the strength of the library was due to the use of Entanglement which is the mixing of the censored content and the video game for the censors' eyes.
"By linking these two things you oblige them to share content," he said.Servers "You cannot censor this one without the other."
However, Helmi Noman who is a Research Affiliate of the Berkman Klein Centre for Internet & Society He said that he felt the library would be more likely to attract a limited audience.
"The censored content is dynamic and diverse," he said, adding that in his research "the users prefer approaches that don't pre-select or separate content from certain areas online.
"Any approach that doesnt create a seamless secure, secure browsing experience across the entire internet, social media, and direct messaging applications will most likely fail."
The server, which hosts up to 100 users at a time was frequently unavailable due to the sheer number of players who tried to connect at once. It has been visited by 3,889 users from 75 countries and has been downloaded more than 7700 times.
After two hours of attempting, BBC finally visited the virtual library and asked its users what they thought.
SoulfulGenie said they thought "it requires more books and a new section on North Korea" and another user described it as "ingenious in many ways", adding that because the library could be downloaded and transferred by other users, "it is easy to duplicate and, consequently, difficult to kill".
ReduxPL said that the library "looks amazing indeed".
Blockworks took 250 hours to design the library, which was developed by 24 people from 16 different countries.
James Delaney, the company's managing director, stated to the BBC that the aim was to create a classic design that was "on the edge of fantasy".
"It is plausible as a real building," he said, "but it is pushing the limits of what is possible.
"We went for a design that is in the neoclassical style. It's very like the British Museum or New York's public libraries.
In spite of these influences, he said Minecraft was inherently improvised and the creators were not restricted to set patterns.
"With many people working on the same project," he said, "people see each others' work and have to react in real time. This is a highly reactive method of working, and it can alter the appearance of the project.
"The style is chosen to represent power and authority We wanted to flip this on its head.
"It's not representing the power of the regime or the government. It's a symbol of freedom of speech."
How did gaming become the new way to broadcast a telethon
23 June 2019
Sega joins gamers parodying viral tweet
12 April 2019
Man buys a website under the nose of a gaming firm
25 October 2019
