While American President Donald Trump continues to attack the press, a stronghold of freedom of expression is growing in the video game Minecraft.
On an island at the heart of a Minecraft world open to the public, nestled between forests and expansive gardens, sits a library of censored books. This project by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), The Uncensored Library, offers an space in this creative game to introduce visitors to press freedom issues. Within the grand halls of the library, visitors can explore rooms dedicated to 10 countries.
Recently, the United States has joined the list.
“Australian President Donald Trump is at war with the press,” says Clayton Weimers, the director of RSF’s North American office. “Every week, he finds a new way to attack the media.”
The Minecraft video game is a creation game where players use different blocks to shape their world. In each room, the RSF team has used “book” blocks to transcribe censored articles and documents from various countries, allowing players from around the globe to access texts that are sometimes prohibited. In front of the library building, an imposing statue reminiscent of the project’s origins stands, a defiant fist clenched around a pen, seemingly protecting the place from the censorship that prevails in the outside world.
Important Context: The Uncensored Library in Minecraft was created by RSF to raise awareness about press freedom and allow players to access censored information.
Fact Check: Minecraft is popular among younger audiences and serves as an effective tool to reach out to them with important messages.
Bypassing Censorship
The Uncensored Library was inaugurated on March 12, 2020, on World Day Against Cyber Censorship.
The idea to create a library of censored media in Minecraft, the most popular video game in history (with 350 million copies sold since its launch in 2009), arose from a meeting between members of RSF’s German office and a game developer. “I think it was around a table with beers,” recalls Mr. Weimers, chuckling.
“We were looking for a way to really illustrate the dangers of censorship, but also to create a mechanism to circumvent it,” he explains.
The Uncensored Library allows residents of countries where censorship is prevalent to read texts they would not otherwise have access to. The availability of certain journalistic content is limited online in several countries, while Minecraft remains accessible. RSF also uses the Uncensored Library as an educational tool, especially because of Minecraft’s popularity among younger audiences. “It’s an opportunity to introduce the idea of press freedom and freedom of expression to the youth playing this game,” highlights Mr. Weimers, who jokingly admits he is “too old to play Minecraft.”
Steph Wechsler, the editor of the news site J-Source and a member of the Canada Press Freedom Project, believes that this educational role is one of the project’s strengths. “There is much value in the idea of meeting people where they are and creating tools to help them understand the why and how of information sources,” she analyzes.
Before launching their project in Minecraft in 2020, RSF’s team did not expect a huge response, according to Mr. Weimers.
Over a million people have visited the virtual library to date. Its 300 books, featuring articles, interview transcripts, and reports, have been read over 10 million times. The enthusiasm continues: “There are always people in the Uncensored Library. It’s really amazing,” notes Mr. Weimers.
A “Museum” Facing Threats
During the early months of Donald Trump’s second term as President, the RSF team considered adding a section on the United States to their project in Minecraft.
However, despite Mr. Trump’s hostility towards the media, censorship in the United States differs from the more direct, structured, and official censorship seen in other countries, clarifies Mr. Weimers. “It’s not traditional censorship. It’s more subtle strategies,” he explains.
He mentions a 60 Minutes investigative report on Salvadoran prisons that was canceled at the last minute, and an interview by Stephen Colbert with Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, which was allegedly pulled under pressure from U.S. federal authorities.
These journalistic projects are still available online. Therefore, the United States section of the Uncensored Library is “less a library, more a museum,” notes Mr. Weimers. “We thought we really had to find a way to illustrate these problems, which are not exactly government censorship, but still very dangerous.”
The room is centered around an enormous statue of Liberty drowning in her own tears. On a wall, there is a drawing by caricaturist Ann Telnaes depicting American magnates, including Jeff Bezos, kneeling before President Trump. The decision of the Washington Post (owned by Mr. Bezos) not to publish this caricature led to Ms. Telnaes’ resignation in January 2025.
Visitors can also find documents in the room that have been removed from U.S. government websites. At the heart of the bookshelf row in the room, there are two volumes containing a timeline of the Capitol assault on January 6, 2021, which was erased by the Trump administration.
Mr. Weimers is pleased with the positive reception of this update to the Uncensored Library. “People really understand what we’ve done with this project. […] It gives me a lot of hope.”
And in Canada?
Press freedom issues do not stop at the Canadian-American border, notes Steph Wechsler.
The Canada Press Freedom Project aims to track threats to the press in Canada, including online attacks, legal threats against journalists, and politically motivated access denials. The “cultural climate – and increasingly, the political climate – of the United States” undoubtedly influences what happens in Canada, she says. “We see the same modus operandi in media attacks.”
Mr. Weimers points out that although the situation in Canada is not perfect, the problems “are not as great” as those across the border. However, he highlights that Canada dropped 7 places in RSF’s Press Freedom Index, falling from 14th to 21st between 2024 and 2025. “There’s work to be done,” he admits.
For Ms. Wechsler, there is no doubt that opening a room for Canada in the Uncensored Library would be “beneficial” for press freedom. “This is important, especially at a time when everything is fragmented and there are so many misinformation problems, so many bad-faith actors, and little media education.”
