Nikita Uvarov, A 16-year-old Russian teenager faces five years in prison for trying to blow up the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) building in the Minecraft universe. He is accused of conducting training for terrorist activities through the video game and there are two more young people involved in the matter, although they were acquitted after agreeing to cooperate with the investigation.
The case took place in Kamsk, Siberia, where the three young men were arrested in 2020 accused of distributing pamphlets supporting a Moscow anarchist activist who was on trial for hooliganism at the time. One of the pamphlets was placed in the local FSC building, former Soviet KGB, which alerted the police.
The Minecraft video game allows you to build virtual buildings and many users are inspired by the real world, sometimes recreating entire cities.
The authorities tapped the phones of the teenagers, who were only fourteen years old at the time of their arrest. The police then found out that they had plans to blow up an FSC building created in the video game Minecraft. According to the Moscow Times, they found videos and images of the young people on the phones manufacturing explosive devices and throwing Molotov cocktails.
Initially, the young people were going to be tried for participation in a terrorist organization, charges that were finally withdrawn due to lack of evidence. The young Nikita Uvarov assured before the Kamsk military court that, if he entered prison, he would “with a clear conscience and with dignity”. He pleaded not guilty and assured that “I am not a terrorist, I am not guilty.”
The young Uvarov also recounted in front of the court the pressure to which he was subjected by the authorities during the investigation, assuring that at no time did he plan to blow up any building. “For the last time in this court I want to say: I am not a terrorist,” the teenager concluded. It is not the first time that Russian security forces have persecuted teenagers they consider to be dissidents, nor is it the first prison sentence for it.
In August 2020, three young activists were sentenced to prison for belonging to the anarchist group ‘New Greatness’, which allegedly seeks to conspire against the Putin government. In February of that same year, seven young anti-fascists were sentenced to between six and eighteen years on charges of conspiracy and terrorism. Some of them claimed to have been tortured with electrodes and beatings in order to get their confession.
Metaverse before Facebook
Minecraft constitutes a metaverse before Facebook tried to make the buzzword with the change of name and image: it is a place where people interact through a computer.
This has to do with different efforts of various companies. Microsoft also announced the launch of “Mesh” which, starting in 2022, will allow the user to appear in meetings in the form of a personalized avatar. instead of turning on the video.
In the same group of companies, processor giant Nvidia launched its “Omniverse” platform, which allows international development teams to “collaborate in real time in a shared virtual space.”
But video games always led the way. In this sense, more than just free online video games, Roblox, Minecraft or Fortnite have become, through the pandemic, entertainment platforms where players can lead a parallel social life.
The problem is that sometimes the actions of the metaverse have consequences in the real world.