Two years after the acclaimed “Uncensored Playlist”, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) wanted an awareness campaign to highlight the importance of press freedom and overcome censorship. This time aiming to reach millions of young people who grow up in oppressive countries. They are especially vulnerable to disinformation by authoritarian governments and lack access to independent journalism.

The challenge was to reach young people in countries where most media is either controlled or blocked and at the same time excite young people all over the world to engage in a difficult topic such as press freedom

How to overcome censorship and at the same time excite young people about press freedom? By bringing it to their world: Minecraft.

Because even in countries where almost all media is blocked – Minecraft, one of the world’s biggest computer games, with more than 126 million active players per-month, is easily accessible. In these countries that increasingly restrict the rights of their citizens, especially young people flee into games like Minecraft. The game still provides freedom in a virtual world and has the characteristics of a social medium. In addition, Minecraft has books that can be freely written and read inside the game.

RSF used this loophole to build a huge digital library in Minecraft: The Uncensored Library.

A monument for press freedom impressive enough to grab the attention of the international gaming community. And for the first time ever, a game was transformed into a tool to overcome censorship.

In order to reach young gamers in oppressive countries with no access to the mainstream media, RSF needed to activate the well-connected Minecraft community to spread the word inside the game. To catch their attention, it really needed a bold use of Minecraft combined with a fun and exciting gameplay experience. A social media campaign was directly targeting the Minecraft community and big gaming influencers, who are constantly on the lookout for exciting new topics to talk about.

One week before the launch: hundreds of press releases were sent to global media outlets to focus their attention on World Day Against Cyber Censorship. Targeting not only classic news media but lifestyle, tech and gaming sites, not known to cover press freedom topics (yet). With pictures, videos, a website and interviews, RSF documented the fascinating story of overcoming censorship for the first time ever with a game in a truly news-worthy

Censored articles from acclaimed journalists became uncensored Minecraft books, available in English and the language of their origin in the library. 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 digital library that has a jaw-dropping effect on Minecraft players at first sight.

On World Day Against Cyber Censorship (March 12th, 2020), the library opened its doors inside Minecraft. Along with a whole social media campaign featuring Instagram and Facebook 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 attention of gaming influencers.

The Uncensored Library reached 20 million gamers from 165 countries, including Russia, Vietnam, Egypt, Mexico and Saudi Arabia (total playtime +15 years).

Gaming influencers like CaptainSparklez talked about it and the community got excited and created more than 400 gameplay videos. What governments tried to hide suddenly was a trending topic.

More than 790 news articles with a total media reach of 2.7B (media budget €0) made the campaign a huge international awareness success for RSF. It engaged people in their cause (+3500 new membership requests) and 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 London made it a permanent part of their exhibition.

The library will stay open indefinitely – to empower young people and give them back their human right to access information.