BRIEF

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) wanted a new awareness campaign and overcome censorship – to especially reach the millions of young people who grow up in oppressive countries under strict online censorship. Deprived from independent information, they are especially vulnerable to disinformation campaigns by authoritarian governments.

SOLUTION

How to overcome censorship and excite young people about press freedom? Turning their favorite game into a digital loophole:

Even in countries where most media is blocked – the globally popular computer game “Minecraft” is easily accessible. We built a library within the game and republished formerly censored articles as “Minecraft books” – free to read by all players:
The Uncensored Library.

Censored articles from acclaimed independent journalists became uncensored “Minecraft books”, available in English and their original language.

On March 2021 the Library got updated and the complete RSF 2021 Press Freedom Index was uploaded to the dome (180 books). Aside from that three more countries got added: Belarus, Brazil and Eritrea.

CULTURAL CONTEXT

Minecraft is one of the world’s biggest computer games with more than 126 million active players per month. It allows players to experience creative freedom and build entire worlds with Lego-like blocks. Part of its gameplay are items such as books. Minecraft books can be freely written and shared with other players.

BACKGROUND

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) wanted to reach the millions of young people who grow up with online censorship. Deprived from independent information, they are especially vulnerable to disinformation campaigns by authoritarian governments. The challenge was to overcome strict censorship in countries where most media is blocked and at the same time excite young people about a difficult topic like press freedom.
But it was also important to create a campaign strong enough to raise awareness for the cause of RSF and their global fight against press censorship. No matter where people live, they need to know about the importance of press freedom to stand up for its protection.
The featured countries were picked by comparing RSF’s “World Press Freedom Index” with Google data (Minecraft interest by country). Accordingly, journalists from countries with poor press freedom rating but high Minecraft interest were chosen by RSF and their censored work got republished. 

RESULTS

The Uncensored Library reached more than 20 million gamers from 165 countries, many of them suffering under censorship. Adding up to a total play time of more than 15 years.

Big gaming influencers like CaptainSparklez talked about the project and the community made more than 400 YouTube videos about it – and what governments tried to hide became a trending topic.

But the library went beyond the game: resulting in more than 790 news articles with a total media reach of 2.7 billion, all with a media budget of €0. Donations for RSF increased significantly by 62%, helping them to extend their global fight for press freedom. The library even became a teaching tool in many schools and universities and the Design Museum in London made it a permanent part of their exhibition.

The Uncensored Library will stay open and more articles are being added – to give young people back their human right to access information.