I Just Discovered a Place Where Books Can't Be Banned

I just discovered a place where censored journalists from around the world can publish their work. A library that governments can't burn. A safe repository for banned books. 

And more than 25 million people have already walked through its doors—most of them from the very countries that don't want them reading what's inside.

It's called The Uncensored Library, and it exists inside Minecraft. Yes, that Minecraft. The blocky video game your kids (or let's be honest, you) might play. 

(Minecraft, for the uninitiated, is a video game where players build entire worlds out of digital blocks that act like virtual LEGOs. With over 112 million active players monthly, it's one of the most popular video games in history.)

In countries like Russia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Vietnam, journalists are sometimes “disappeared” for writing the truth. Governments work overtime blocking websites, censoring social media, conducting online surveillance, and controlling what information their citizens can access.

But they rarely block Minecraft. The game slips under the radar as harmless entertainment. “It's just kids building virtual worlds with digital blocks,” the authorities may think.

Now, it's also a sanctuary for banned journalism.

In 2020, Reporters Without Borders partnered with BlockWorks and DDB Berlin to create something extraordinary: a massive neoclassical library inside Minecraft where censored articles become in-game “books” that anyone can read. Each wing represents a different country. Each book tells a story that a government doesn’t want told.

You can read the work of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist murdered by the Saudi government. You can explore articles from Vietnam's Nguyen Van Dai, jailed for his writing. There's a memorial wall in the Mexico wing honoring journalists killed for reporting on cartel corruption.

Confused? Watch this video explaining The Uncensored Library, made by its creators.

The project won a 2022 Peabody Award. Teachers from middle schools to universities are using it in their classrooms. People from 165 countries have visited, and they're not just reading—they're having conversations about freedom of the press, free speech, and what truth means in the in-game chat.

We live in an age where words are both more powerful and more vulnerable than ever. A single article has the power to help topple a regime, but it also could cost you your life.

And yet, the human impulse to share our truth remains unstoppable. When governments censor us, we build libraries inside video games.

Writers throughout history have hidden manuscripts in walls, smuggled pages across borders, memorized poems so they'd survive even if the paper burned. The medium changes. The mission doesn't.

Aloha,
MeiMei

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Check out The Uncensored Library

Will governments eventually catch on and block Minecraft in their countries? Maybe. China already did after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Some worry authoritarian regimes will soon pressure Microsoft to remove the Uncensored Library or use it to track who's accessing censored content.

The good news is, once the information is out there, it's nearly impossible to contain completely. The library can be downloaded and republished on other servers. Players share it peer-to-peer. Truth finds a way.

Meanwhile, visit the Uncensored Library yourself at uncensoredlibrary.com. Download the map. Walk through those halls. Read the words someone risked everything to write.

Maybe the next time you sit down at your keyboard, you'll feel the privilege of being able to write freely—and the responsibility that comes with it.