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title: "\n    Minecraft 'loophole' Library Of Banned Journalism"

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    Minecraft 'loophole' Library Of Banned Journalism</h1>
    <html><body><p><p><br/> Minecraft 'loophole' library of banned journalism By Tom Gerken BBC News, Washington DC<br/></p><br/><p><br/> 13 March 2020<br/></p><br/><p><br/> It began as a project on a forum online and turned into the best-selling video game ever However, now Minecraft is being used for something even its creator would have never dreamt of.<br/></p><br/><p><br/> The center of free speech has taken on the legendary game of putting Lego-like blocks with more than 145,000,000 people every month, and transformed into a symbol.<br/></p><br/><p><br/> To host articles written by journalists who were censored online The virtual library was designed with care.<br/></p><br/><p><br/> The work of Jamal Khashoggi, the journalist killed by Saudi agents in the year 2018 is available among the many books available in the library.<br/></p><br/><p><br/> Minecraft declined to make a comment.<br/></p><br/><p><br/> The project was developed by non-profit organisation Reporters Without Borders, which is dedicated to defending the freedom of information worldwide The Minecraft library itself was created by design studio Blockworks.<br/></p><br/><p><br/> Christian Mihr, executive director of Reporters Without Borders Germany, told the BBC that Minecraft was a great choice for the project as he believes it is not considered a threat by governments which restrict their media.<br/></p><br/><p><br/> He stated that Minecraft was chosen because of its accessibility. "It is available in every country. The game is not subject to censorship as other games that are suspected of being political.<br/></p><br/><p><br/> "There are large communities in each featured country This is why the idea came up as an avenue for censorship."<br/></p><br/><p><br/> He said that the authors were chosen to represent countries where press freedom was restricted, so that people in those communities could access their work.<br/></p><br/><p><br/> But he clarified that permissions were sought prior to republishing in the library.<br/></p><br/><p><br/> "We didn't put any content in the library without the permission of the authors themselves - if they're alive.<br/></p><br/><p><br/> "In the Jamal Khashoggi case, we spoke to family members - in regard of deceased relatives, and the safety their families."<br/></p><br/><p><br/> Nick Feamster, Neubauer Professor of Computer Science, at the University of Chicago, stated to the BBC that the library was able to beat censors, but was concerned about the response of governments.<br/></p><br/><p><br/> He said it was an interesting idea however, there were issues. The government will be aware of this and the articles are being circulated all over the internet. It's not foolproof to an aggressive enemy.<br/></p><br/><p><br/> He stated that the strength of the library came from its use of entanglement mixing up the censored material with the video game in the eyes of censors.<br/></p><br/><p><br/> He said, "By entangling the two items, you force them all to share content." "You can't block this one without the other."<br/> <a href="https://frehtml5.co/">FREHTML5</a> </p><br/><p><br/> Helmi Noman, a Research Affiliate at the Berkman Klein Centre for Internet & Society said that he thought the library would only have a small audience.<br/></p><br/><p><br/> He said that "censored content is constantly changing and varied" and that users prefer to use approaches that don't preselect or compartmentalise content in particular areas online.<br/></p><br/><p><br/> "Any approach that doesn't create a seamless and secure browsing experience across the entire internet as well as social media, direct messaging applications will probably have limited success."<br/></p><br/><p><br/> The server, which can host up to 100 players at once, was regularly inaccessible due to how many players were trying to log in at once. Despite this limit on concurrent users, it has been visited by 3,889 users from 75 different countries and downloaded over 7,000 times.<br/></p><br/><p><br/> After two hours of trying after trying for two hours, the BBC was able to visit the virtual library and ask its patrons what they thought of it.<br/></p><br/><p><br/> SoulfulGenie stated that they felt it needed more books, including one on North Korea. Another user described it as "ingenious" and claimed that the library could be downloaded and reuploaded by other users. "It is simple to duplicate and, therefore, difficult to destroy."<br/></p><br/><p><br/> ReduxPL said that the library "looks amazing indeed".<br/></p><br/><p><br/> Blockworks took 250 hours to design the library, which was completed by 24 people from 16 countries.<br/></p><br/><p><br/> James Delaney, Managing Director of the design company told the BBC that the goal was to create a classic design that was "on the border of fantasy".<br/></p><br/><p><br/> "It is kind of plausible as a real-world building," he said, "but is pushing the limits of what is possible.<br/></p><br/><p><br/> "We decided to go with a design in the neoclassical style. It's akin to the British Museum and public libraries in New York."<br/></p><br/><p><br/> In spite of these influences, he claimed Minecraft was improvisational at its core So the builders were not limited to pre-defined plans.<br/></p><br/><p><br/> He explained that when there are a lot of people working on the same project, "people can see each others' work and have to respond in real-time." It's a reactive method of working that can change the look of the project.<br/></p><br/><p><br/> "The style is chosen to symbolize power and authority - we wanted to turn the whole thing around.<br/></p><br/><p><br/> "Instead of representing the power of the government or regime it's representing the freedom of the press."<br/></p><br/><p><br/> How did gaming become the new television<br/></p><br/><p><br/> 23 June 2019<br/></p><br/><p><br/> Sega joins gamers parodying viral tweet<br/></p><br/><p><br/> 12 April 2019<br/></p><br/><p><br/> Man buys website from under the nose of a gaming firm<br/></p><br/><p><br/> 25 October 2019<br/></p></p></body></html>
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