How to evade censorship and excite young people about press freedom? With the power of gaming.

One of the world’s biggest computer games, with more than 126 million active players per month, is Minecraft. Even in countries where almost all media is blocked, Minecraft

is still easily accessible, bypassing some of the world’s strongest firewalls. And it has books that can be freely written and read inside the game. The perfect match for our mission.

We used this loophole to build a monumental statement for press freedom within Minecraft: The Uncensored Library.

And thus, for the first time ever, a game was transformed into a tool to overcome censorship and to educate young people about the importance of press freedom.

Censored articles from acclaimed journalists became uncensored Minecraft books, available in English and their original language in the library. To catch the attention of a demanding gaming community, it really needed a bold use of Minecraft combined with a fun and exciting gameplay experience. It took 12.5 million Lego-like blocks to build the enormous library inside the game and it uses Minecraft’s in-game resources in an unseen and innovative way. A giant monument for press freedom that had a jaw-dropping effect on gamers at first sight. In addition, an organic social media campaign directly targeted the Minecraft community and influencers, who are constantly on the lookout for exciting new projects to talk about. Letting them know gamers now have the power to fight authoritarian governments and bypass state censorship simply by playing their favorite game – got them involved and engaged.

On World Day Against Cyber Censorship (March 12th, 2020), the library opened its doors inside Minecraft. Along with a social media campaign featuring Instagram posts, YouTube videos, Reddit threads and tweets – all with the call to action to visit the library inside the game and share the news. Since Minecraft is the biggest game on YouTube, an emotional launch film and a making-of-film about the project played a key role in getting the community engaged and win the involvement of big YouTube gaming influencers.

Before the launch, an exclusive press kit was sent to the media including the whole story of the project, background information, journalists’ interviews, quotes, and high-resolution images, while suggesting articles to link to the campaign’s website. The website provided a 360 browser walk-through of the library for everyone who doesn’t play Minecraft. But also, additional information about the censored journalists and the work of Reporters Without Borders, encouraging visitors to support the NGOs cause with donations.

The Uncensored Library is constantly growing: At its opening, the library featured five countries (Russia, Egypt, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, and Mexico), and a room with uncensored information about the corona pandemic was added shortly after its launch. In 2021, 180 books were updated and renewed, and two more Pavilions with independent journalism from Brazil and Belarus were built. In 2022 a room for Eritrea was added in combination with an exhibition in the Swedish national library.