(Epoch Times Interview – December 15, 2025)
Writer Tománek created his own social network "without censorship and banning." It already has over 2 thousand users
Czech writer, film director and artist Jan Tománek came to the conclusion that it was necessary to create a social network for the Czech audience that would provide a more welcoming environment for sharing opinions and information.
Although he is mainly devoted to writing books and became famous for the animated film The Goat Story, he is also active in the public sphere and spreads his own glosses and commentaries, in which he draws attention to the loss of freedoms, growing censorship and restrictions on expression. In the following interview, you will learn more about the motivation for founding the network and the network itself.
Why did you decide to program and start your own social network?
It's been like that for me my whole life – I'm looking for something for myself, but I can't find it, so I tell myself I'll create it myself (laughs).
This is how I started Goat Stories. Similarly, in 2021, I was missing a book that would describe the current world and what is happening in it in a concise and understandable way, so I wrote Guide to the rabbit hole, a book about how Covid, the Green Deal, the Great Reset, the destruction of Europe and perhaps even our education system are all connected. That they are not separate phenomena at all, but a common goal.
And I came up with my own network in a similar way, but "programmed" is a very high-sounding term. I don't actually know how to program myself, and the last thing I did was experiment with the old one when I was eight. ZX Spectrum. But I understand computers very well, so I searched, my family didn't know about me for a week, and using AI programming, I fine-tuned and reworked an open source solution for my needs, and finally launched a network with the working name X Tomanek.
What do you expect from this, what result do you think it can currently bring?
I have found that what bothers me most is the toxicity of current networks and especially their censorship. Both the "hard" one, which you, for example, have seen on Facebook when they removed your Epoch Times page, and the more hidden one. It is mainly about the so-called "shadow bans", that is, your reach is artificially silenced.
For example, I have 6,500 followers on Twitter, but what I write there for some texts is only seen by 300-500 people. Twitter, like Facebook, lets you choose what to like and what not. Of course, according to its internal censorship algorithms.
On my network, if there are, for example, 500 people who want to follow me, then 500 people see the article and read it. So in just 14 days of operating my network and with 2,000 people who are there so far, I already have a higher reach than on Twitter with 6,500 followers.
The second thing I talked about is toxicity, and I solved that by making the network invite-only, so you can only register if someone invites you. And then there are no nicknames, only photos of people so you can see the person you're writing to in the eye. And it's even harder to curse at someone with a face.
And do you know that it works? Out of the 2,000 people there, there's not a single troll, not a single hater, not a single one with a fake profile. Just normal people.
What is the expected capacity of your network? How many people will it "hold"?
I started cautiously, inviting hundreds of people at first and was afraid of what it would do, but it turns out that the system is very optimized. On a dedicated server where my domains run, even this server, I mean in this configuration, can handle 10 to 20 thousand people without any problems.
Of course, I had to make some minor restrictions. For example, due to capacity reasons, I can't record videos directly, but you can share YouTube videos with a preview, for example.
And a VPS server is not a problem to scale later, so I believe that a capacity of 50 to 100 thousand people is possible.
But as I say, I'm more concerned with the "quality" of people than the quantity.
Are you considering selling advertising on the network or paid usage? How do you plan to finance it in the long term?
For now, I'm dealing with it myself and will see how it goes - I certainly don't want to flood the space with advertising, because that's also the reason why I ran away from normal networks. If there is a solution, then maybe in time some symbolic voluntary contribution, or maybe some bonus membership.
How many users does the network have so far and how has it developed since its launch?
In 14 days of existence, we have reached 2,000 people (now almost 2,300) and more are still joining in droves. Of these, around 480 people return daily and 1,100 people return at least once a week. These are great numbers so far, but time will tell and it will mainly depend on people whether they will use the network and want freedom, perhaps with some minor restrictions, or the Facebook mainstream with censorship, but a nice and shiny one.
I originally created the network for my readers and followers, but I'm glad that it is becoming a free space with dozens of different spaces without censorship and banning. There are, for example, SMIŠ, Otevři svů mysl, Igor Chaun, Rádio Universum, Spolek Svatopluk, KTV Live and more are coming.
I've done my part - now it's up to the people.
Anyone interested in the network can sign up for my newsletter, where I send invitations from time to time, or ask a friend of mine to invite him.
(For the Epoch Times – Milan Kajinek)
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