Notes

Minecraft 'loophole' Library Of Banned Journalism

Minecraft 'loophole' library of banned journalism By Tom Gerken BBC News, Washington DC



13 March 2020



It began as a project on a forum online and turned into the best-selling video game of all time However, now Minecraft is being used for something even its creator would have never imagined.



The center of free speech has taken the iconic game of putting Lego-like blocks together with more than 145,000,000 people each month, and turned into a symbol.



A virtual library was carefully designed to host the articles written by journalists which were later censored online.



You can find the work of Jamal Khashoggi (the journalist who was murdered by Saudi agents in 2018) as well as a host of other books in the library.



Minecraft has refused to comment.
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Reporters Without Borders, a non-profit organization that aims to safeguard the freedom of information throughout the world has created the project. Blockworks, the design studio responsible for the Minecraft library, built it.



Christian Mihr, the executive director of Reporters Without Borders Germany, said that Minecraft was a great project as he doesn't believe it poses an issue for governments that control their media.



"We have chosen Minecraft due to its accessibility," he said. "It is available in every country. The game is not subject to censorship like other games suspected to be political.



"There are large communities in every country featured, that's why the idea came up - it is an avenue for censorship."



He explained that the authors were chosen to represent countries in which press was censored to ensure that members of those communities could access their work.



He also explained that permissions were sought prior publishing in the library.



"We didn't put any information into the library without the permission of the author If they're still alive.



"In the Jamal Khashoggi case, we spoke to family members - in regard of deceased relatives, and the safety their families."



Nick Feamster, Neubauer Professor of Computer Science, at the University of Chicago, stated to the BBC that the library was able to beat the censors , but was concerned about the reaction of governments.



He said that it was an interesting concept, but that there were still issues. Governments will be aware and the articles are being circulated all over the internet. It's not secure against an armed adversary.



He stated that the library's strength was due to its use of Entanglement, which is the mixing of censored material and video games to the satisfaction of the editors.



"By linking these two things you make them share content," he said. "You can't block this one without the other."



In the meantime, Helmi Noman is a Research Associate of the Berkman Klein Centre for Internet & Society said that he felt the library would likely to have an audience that is limited.



"The censored content is dynamic, diverse and distributed," he said, saying that in his study "the users prefer methods that don't pre-select or compartmentalise content from certain online spaces.



"Any strategy that doesn't result in a seamless and secure browsing experience across the entire web as well as social media, direct messaging apps will have limited success."



Due to the sheer number of players trying to log in simultaneously the server could not be accessed regularly. It has been visited by 3,889 players from 75 different countries. It has been downloaded more than 7700 times.



After two hours of trying after trying for two hours, the BBC managed to visit the virtual library and asked its patrons what they thought about it.



SoulfulGenie said that they believed it needed more books and one on North Korea. Another user called it "ingenious" and stated that the library could be downloaded and then reuploaded by other users. "It is easy to replicate and therefore it is difficult to eradicate."



ReduxPL said that the library "looks amazing indeed".



The design of the library by Blockworks was no small feat it took a team of 24 people from 16 countries for 250 hours to create.



James Delaney, Managing Director of the design company told the BBC that the company's goal was to create a classic design which was "on the edge of fantasy".



He said that it was plausible as a building, but is exceeding the limits of what is possible.



"We chose a design in the neoclassical style. It's very like the British Museum or New York's public libraries.



He said that Minecraft was improvisational at its fundamentals, which means that creators weren't restricted to following a specific design.



"With many people working on the same project," he said, "people observe each other's work and have to react in real time. It's a reactive method of working, which can change the appearance of the project.



"The style is intended to represent authority and power. We wanted to turn that around.



"It's not representing the power of either the government or the regime. It's symbolizing freedom of speech."



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