Notes

Minecraft 'loophole' Library Of Banned Journalism

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



13 March 2020



It was originally an online forum project and has since become the most popular video game ever. However, now Minecraft is being played in ways that its creators could never have imagined.



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



A virtual library has been carefully designed to host the pieces written by journalists that were censored online.



You will find the work of Jamal Khashoggi (the journalist who was killed by Saudi agents in 2018) in addition to a variety of other books at the library.



Minecraft declined to make a comment.



Reporters Without Borders, a non-profit organization that aims to safeguard the freedom of information across the globe 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 affront to governments that control their media.



He said that Minecraft was chosen due to its accessibility. "It is accessible in every nation. The game is not subject to censorship like some other games which are believed to be political.



"There are large communities in every country featured, that's the reason why it was suggested that it's a loophole for the practice of censorship."



He explained that the authors were selected to represent countries where press was censored in order that people from those communities could access their work.
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He also clarified that permissions had to be sought prior to publishing in libraries.



"We didn't put any information in the library without the consent of the authors themselves - if they are alive.



"In the Jamal Khashoggi's case, we spoke with family members - to express our respect of those who were killed, and to ensure the safety of their families."



Nick Feamster, Neubauer Professor of Computer Science at the University of Chicago He told the BBC that the library could be successful in beating the censors, but he was concerned about how governments may respond.



"It's an interesting idea," he said, "But I think there are still some issues. The government will be aware of this as the articles are spreading all over the internet. It's not foolproof to a determined enemy.



He said that the library's strength was in its use of entanglement mixing the censored material with the video game in the eyes of censors.



He said, "By entangling the two items, you force them all to share content." "You cannot censor one without the other."



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



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



"Any method that doesn't provide an effortless and secure experience for browsing the entire internet, social media and direct messaging applications will probably have limited success."



The server, which hosts a maximum of 100 players at a time, was frequently inaccessible due to how many players tried to connect simultaneously. It has been visited by 3,889 players from 75 countries and has been downloaded more than 7700 times.



After two hours of searching, BBC finally visited the virtual library and asked users what they thought.



SoulfulGenie said that they believe it needs more books, including a section on North Korea. Another user described it as "ingenious" and claimed that the library could be downloaded and reuploaded again by other users. "It is simple to duplicate and, therefore, difficult to destroy."



Meanwhile, other players focused on the look of the library, with ReduxPL declaring that it "looks incredible indeed".



Blockworks took 250 hours to design the library, which was developed by 24 people from 16 different countries.



James Delaney, Managing Director of the design firm, told the BBC that the aim was to create a classic design which was "on the edge of fantasy".



"It is plausible as a real building," he said, "but is pushing 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.



Outside of these influences he said Minecraft was inherently improvisational So the builders were not limited to pre-defined patterns.



He explained that when there are many people working on the same task, "people can see each other's work and must respond in real-time." It's a reactive method of working that can change the look of the project.



"The style is meant to signify authority and power. We wanted to turn that around.



"It's not a symbol of the power of the regime or the government. It's representing freedom of speech."



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