Video game ‘Minecraft’ spotlights censorship with new U.S. room
Reporters Without Borders has unveiled a new room in the uncensored library for the video game “Minecraft,” created to allow journalists to broadcast articles censored in their home countries.
The new U.S. wing of the Uncensored Library was launched Wednesday to mark World Day Against Cyber Censorship, focusing on “more subtle and less direct methods of attacks on freedom of the press and freedom of information.”
Reporters Without Borders, also known by its French initials RSF, is an organization defending access to the media and the rights of journalists. He created the library, dubbed a “digital haven for independent news,” in 2020 to function as an information loophole to circumvent media restrictions.
It now includes more than 300 examples of censored or restricted works from writers around the world.
Because it is “Minecraft,” the best-selling video game of all time, governments cannot prohibit access to its content without banning “Minecraft” altogether.
The new room is one of ten rooms dedicated to writings from countries that censor their citizens or prevent them from accessing certain information.
The library includes journalists from Egypt, Belarus, Brazil, Eritrea, Iran, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and, now, the United States.
The new room features government websites that have been taken down by officials and showcases developments in press freedom, including the Federal Communications Commission’s increased pressure on media companies and President Trump’s lawsuits against the media.
Although there is no outright state censorship in the United States, the Trump administration has denounced “fake news,” targeting unfavorable reporting since Mr. Trump regained control of the White House.
Visitors see Ann Telnaes’ rejected cartoon for the Washington Post, which shows the paper’s owner, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg kneeling before Mr. Trump, offering bags of cash.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Clayton Weimers, executive director of RSF USA, said the library’s goal has always been to showcase stories “silenced by repressive states.”
“But often, the removal of articles takes a less overt form than direct censorship,” Mr. Weimers said in a statement. “RSF wishes to draw attention to the more subtle attacks on press freedom in the United States, to remind us that totally authoritarian regimes do not have a monopoly on attacks on press freedom. Democracies must be wary of these tactics to avoid any backsliding.”
RSF said the United States is experiencing the first significant and prolonged decline in press freedom in modern history, exacerbated by Mr. Trump’s return to the presidency.
The National Press Freedom Index 2025 shows a score of 57 out of 180 countries, compared to 45 when the library was created in 2002.
