Non-profit organisation Reporters Without Borders has built a virtual library in the video game Minecraft to give gamers access to censored books and articles.
Named The Uncensored Library, the virtual library houses articles banned in countries including Egypt, Mexico and Russia.
The Uncensored Library is a virtual library inside Minecraft
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and creative advertising agency DDB devised the concept so that young gamers in countries with stringent press censorship rules are able to access the material.
"The target was to reach gamers aged between 15 and 30 years old, especially in countries with online censorship, to get them engaged with independent journalism," senior art director at DDB Germany Sandro Heierli told Dezeen. The designers hope that young people can access independent journalism through the library
The team chose to locate the virtual library inside Minecraft, using blockchain cloud storage to prevent governments from surveilling its contents.
"The library can be downloaded as an offline map," Heierli explained. "The offline map is then stored on a decentralised blockchain cloud storage ? which is impossible to hack."
"Once downloaded, each map can be uploaded again, allowing the library to multiply," he continued. "So far there are more than 200,000 copies ? this makes it impossible to take the library down even for Reporters without Borders themselves."
Governments are unable to...