Introduction: who am I?

My name is Rik van Velzen and I am the founder of and currently developing the metacules.com platform.

I have been working as a software developer for 7+ years in a mulitude of companies creating and maintaining multiple apps that have been downloaded by millions of users.
I am a Senior Android mobile specialist with additional experience in web and backend development.
I have been inspired to create a new type of pro free speech tech platform that connects and gives users increased access to a media content provided by the major platforms.
Currently I have been working for months already to create a platform that can serve as an antidote the Big Tech censorship. I have set up the foundation and now it's time to get more people involved and get funded.

What is the cause?

Metacules: a new tech meta-platform 

Connecting knowledge seekers to a wide variety of media content providing platforms. 
Un-censoring the censored and giving people access back to all the voices. 
Creating an antidote to Big Tech censorship. 

What is the  Metacules.com  platform?  

Metacules  is a new type of tech platform. New type in the sense of that it’s a  meta   platform that connects users to video, podcast and book content from a wide variety of platforms like YouTube, Vimeo, iTunes,  BitChute , Rumble, Amazon and more, and delivers that content to the user by means of a beautiful and attractive User Interface.  
The  Metacules  platform vision is to combine a search engine, that searches the internet for interesting content, with a place to watch, listen or read that content.  
Metacules  specifically focuses on people and their ideas giving users access to interesting people and their ideas in the area of politics, psychology, philosophy, spirituality, religion, health, lifestyle & science.  

What is a meta platform?   
In comparison to most media content providing platforms that allow content creators to upload and publish their podcast or videos and allow users to view that content, metacules.com doesn’t provide this service, but builds on top of this already existing internet infrastructure.  

It helps the user navigate the internet to find interesting content & ties together content delivered from third party platforms (like YouTube, iTunes, etc.) via their public APIs and in this way increases the access that users have to content and connects them to platforms they usually wouldn’t go to or even know about.  
All while at the same time having access to their preferred go-to platforms.  

How does Metacules plan to provide an antidote to Big Tech censorship?  
  The  Metacules  platform intention is to be a part of the movement against censorship.  
The  antidote  will form and occur as a natural consequence of how the platform functions.   
An easy way to understand this is by using the following example:  

Imagine you have a platform that hosts videos – let's call it Platform A – and on this platform is a user that has a channel and uploads videos where they talk about certain topics. They think out-of-the-box, they have interesting and creative ideas and they speak freely about them.  
Now platform A says “Sorry, you speak is a bit too free for our liking. You are not allowed to discuss or talk about certain things on our platform and we won’t allow you to publish on our platform anymore”.  
That person's account gets canceled and in effect platform A censored this person.  
This person might go to another platform – let's call it platform B – that does allow their content, but many people love platform A, because platform A provides great content and it's just too much of a hustle to also go to platform B and they basically loose access to the content that this person creates.  
 
Now what the platform that we are creating does is it will connect the user to all the content from platform A, that platform that they lo ve so much, but it will also connect the user to platform B to which the censored person which content you found interesting is now uploading their videos. And it is also connecting you to platform C where another person you liked but got censored is uploading their podcasts.  

 
All the user has to do is to go and watch videos or listen to podcast through our platform and the content from that person that got canceled on platform A will still be showing up in the recommendation feeds or your favorite persons feed and they will still be able to search for their content. Along with all the other content from platform A that the user  loves so much.  
If they use the  metacules  platform they might not even realize that this person got censored.  

Why create the Metacules platform? 

We currently live in a time in our western society where censorship and de-platforming people is becoming more and more normal.  
The president of the USA has recently been deleted from many platforms, a couple of days later Parler.com, a platform that promotes free speech, was wiped from the internet overnight in a collaborate effort from tech giants like Google, Apple & Amazon, and more and more people have been or are getting censored and silenced whether it’s on YouTube, Twitter or any other major platform.  

And whatever you may think of someone’s ideas or however much you dislike their ideas and beliefs.  
It is vital and essential for a healthy society that everyone is allowed to express their voice and their ideas freely. That we are allowed to communicate our thoughts and are given an opportunity to discuss them with each other.  

We are all in relationship with each other. Whether we want it or not.  
And we need to decide collectively, and all of us individually:   
What kind of relationship do I want this to be?  
What kind of relationship do I want with my fellow citizen?  
 
We can either have our hate and anger, frustration or fear consume us & drive us to a place where we shut out people we don’t agree with. Label them with the worst words we can find & say about them and objectify them to such extend that we become dispassionate about how they are treated.  
And cheer on and feel righteous about the silencing of their voices. Or just be complacent about when this is happening.  

Or we can choose to create that relationship with each other where we allow others to speak their mind and listen to them. Even when they say things we don’t like or agree with.   
We can choose to make an effort to create an environment where another’s idea or story is welcomed.   
Where people don’t need to fear for their livelihood or safety when they talk about what they believe in or stand for.   

Free speech is a foundation stone of a healthy society and with the  Metacules  platform I aim to create a place where this guiding principle is upheld and propagated.  
The degree we stand for free speech is measures by the degree we are able to respects, tolerate and allow the expression of ideas of people we might not like so much or who we might not agree with. Not by the measure to which we allow the once we like and agree with.  
I believe that the current path of (selective) censorship, which is happening more and more often, whether it’s by a small group of individuals aligning with cancel culture or by tech giants, will be detrimental for our society and surely won’t benefit the good of all.  With this new  platform I aim to steer away from the pro-censorship path that’s been taken that inevitably leads to societal decline.
Metacules will be a platform that stands for free speech, promote honest discussions, conversations and sharing of ideas and we want to help open up the internet and increase access to a wide variety of ideas and voices.  

What is the money for the FundRazr for?
Currently  Metacules  is a team of just 2 developers/friends, with no funding, putting in their efforts to get a first viable version up and running.  

A basic structure for the frontend and backend of the website is already online, but to get to a first viable version to release to the public an estimated 2 (to max. 3) months of work with 2 additional senior developers (backend & frontend) is needed.  
We also need funding to pay for setting up and creating a secure and safe server environment and have administrative and legal costs for grounding the company.

Rough estimate of cost overview:
- dedicated server for 2 years at ~€50 a month = ~€1000,-
- senior backend & senior frontend developer a €3800-€4500 /month per developer.
- administration/webhosting/company cost = ~€500

For this we need your help to get the resources we currently don’t have.  

With a little bit of help I am sure we can realize this new platform.
The inspiration and the vision are there.
The foundation is there.
The will, the heart and the mind are there and with help of you we can bring this to realization.

I hope you are willing to help and support us.

Sincerely,

Rik van Velzen
Founder/Creator of the Metacules platform 

"Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war."
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Want to stay updated and informed?
You can also follow us via one of the following channels:  

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/metacules  
Locals:  https://metacules-creatinganantidotetocensorship.locals.com/  
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/Metaculescom-100856938688500  
MeWe:  https://mewe.com/i/metaculescom