Literally 1.19.84

Yesterday, Mojang Studios released the 1.19.1 update to the popular block game Minecraft. Ostensibly, one would expect a minor update to be a couple bug fixes and mechanic adjustments, but, as you may already know, 1.19.1 brings the complete opposite.

What was wrong about it?

If you’re living under a rock, 1.19.1 introduced player a profanity filter for multiplayer servers hosted using Mojang’s “Minecraft Realms” service and player reporting to all servers.

Why is this bad?

Player reporting is not just limited to “Minecraft Realms,” but your own servers, too! That’s right, you can be banned for what you say in your own, privately-hosted server. Microsoft has no right to regulate and censor our language in a server that we directly are paying for. This is clearly a move by Microsoft to increase their stranglehold on the Minecraft community. Just a few months ago, they forced everyone to “migrate” their Mojang accounts to Microsoft accounts. At the time, they claimed it was for “security.” Now, Microsoft is playing their cards and we, the community, are paying for it.

From the opaque algorithms of Google to the battlefields of Twitter, Minecraft 1.19.1 is the latest in the list of blatant violations of free speech by Big Tech.

What can we do about it?

Boycott, boycott, boycott. Stop buying Minecraft five times to play on each platform. Stop buying Xbox Game Pass despite its stellar content. Sacrifices must be made if we want to avert the dystopia of George Orwell’s legendary novel.

We, as a community, cannot let this transgression stand. We cannot will let Big Tech push us around. We, as a collective, must band together to hit Microsoft where it hurts. Only then can our voices be heard.