Filtering content is almost as easy as using a filter on Snapchat. You can do it with the click of a button. In our modern society you’d think we’d be a bit more free. The rise of the internet has caused the opposite. Censorship is ever more common, and harder to recognize. The internet has almost caused the collapse of our freedom as we know it. 

Censorship has always been around, if an article or novel has been published that doesn’t portray a government in the best of light, you should watch out. Take China for example.  Their entire media is state-run, allowing the government to pick and choose what their citizens should be allowed to see. You can easily look to the situation in Hong Kong to see the effect of this. Chinese citizens had a biased view of the protests, while the rest of the world was speaking out against what China was doing in Hong Kong. Back them up. Or look at Saudi Arabia, they have the most jailed journalists in the world. Journalist Jamal Khashoggi was  murdered by the regime for speaking against their actions. You don’t have to do something “severe” to be punished by the Saudi Government. A Saudi journalist disagreed with one economic policy of the Royal Family, but was still a strong supporter of them, was imprisoned. While these are some remote examples, you can easily look to any country and find some sort of censorship taking place–small or large. 

So, what can we do to stop this? Well, there’s a simple solution: play Minecraft. Yes, play the widely popular sandbox game. You’re probably wondering what Minecraft and censorship have in common. On March 12th, 2020, The Uncensored Library opened. The library is like no other. First of all, it’s virtual. Second of all, it only contains articles that have been censored by certain countries. The library is still new, so there are just around a dozen books from highlighted countries like Egypt, Mexico, Vietnam, Russia, and Saudi Arabia. Each article has been translated to English and the native language it was written in. Each country also has a report on what censorship is like in that country too. This was all possible after Reporters Without Borders partnered with a Minecraft building firm. Minecraft has over 480 million players who could access the multiplayer library or download it. In addition to that, Minecraft is available in numerous countries with limited press freedom, while it may sound silly, playing Minecraft might just help combat global censorship. 

If you’re interested check out their website: www.uncensoredlibrary.com where you can learn to install Minecraft if you’ve never played. Or join the multiplayer server (make sure your game is on 1.14.4) by entering their IP code: visit.unensoredlibrary.com.