Press Freedom Group Stores Censored Articles in Minecraft Library

Minecraft is an extremely popular video game, with more than 170 million copies sold around the world.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has created a library online that includes censored content from all over the world within the wildly popular video game Minecraft.

Minecraft with its distinctive pixelated graphics, enables players to create entire universes from Lego-like digital blocks alone or with others online.

RSF claimed that it had put work by exiled, banned, or killed journalists from five countries -- Egypt (Mexico), Saudi Arabia, Russia, Vietnam and Vietnam - on an Open Server, making it accessible to users to access despite local laws.

"In these countries where blogs, websites and the free press are strictly restricted, Minecraft is still accessible to everyone," the group said in a press release.

"These articles are now accessible again within Minecraft, hidden by technology used to monitor government surveillance inside of an online game. It stated that the books can be accessed by anyone on the server, but cannot be altered in any way.

Minecraft said that 176 million copies had been sold since the game's inception a decade ago.
minecraft

The project, announced on Thursday, to commemorate the World Day Against Cyber Censorship, is called the "Uncensored Library" and is a model of a massive neoclassical-style structure in the game.

RSF said that the library was growing, with more texts being added in English and their original language.

In the game are articles by murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and from Egyptian online newspaper Mada Masr, which has been banned in the North African country since 2017.