A new Christian-focused phone network that blocks pornography and LGBT content launches this week, believed to be the first of its kind.
Launching Tuesday, Radiant Mobile’s service will use Israeli cybersecurity firm Allot to organise website domains into more than 100 categories, and will block all pornographic material at a network-level so users cannot undo the restriction.
Radiant is also said to offer the option of blocking material related to gender and trans issues.
“We are going to create—and we think we have every right to do so—an environment that is Jesus-centric, that is void of pornography, void of LGBT, void of trans,” Radiant Mobile founder Paul Fisher, previously an agent for supermodels including Naomi Campbell, told MIT Technology Review.
Radiant is even able to block certain sections of a website dedicated to LGBT issues, according to Fisher, who also once hosted a TV show in which he tried to get people in rehab centres and homeless shelters into modelling.
For instance, yale.edu would not be blocked but lgbt.yale.edu would be.
Radiant is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), meaning it does not own any cell towers but will buy bandwidth from larger providers (T-Mobile in their case), similar to President Trump’s “Trump Mobile” and “CREDOMobile” which sends money to progressive causes.
A representative for T-Mobile did not comment on whether such content restrictions violate their policies, but told the tech periodical that the network does not have a direct relationship with Radiant, interacting with them through MVNO manager CompaxDigital.
According to Fisher, Radiant has recruited Christian influencers to promote the initiative and has established relationships with thousands of churches across the U.S., proposing plans to have part of their congregant’s $30-per-month Radiant subscription donated to their church.
Beyond the United States, he hopes to expand to markets with large Christian populations, including Mexico and South Korea.
Chris Klimis, an Orlando-based minister and Radiant’s chief operating officer, said he accepted the company’s advances because he wanted to “do something” about what he regards as a pornography crisis pervading Christianity.
“We’ve got to figure out some way to close the door to the digital space,” Klimis said. “That’s what we’re trying to do.”
Allot’s services is also intended to block material about violence, self-harm, malware, gaming, and “sects”, such as websites about Satanism.
If users attempt to visit a website belonging to a blocked group, the page won’t load.
Similar services have work arounds, like Covenant Eyes, a porn-quitting app that sends notifications to the family and friends of users that attempt to breach restrictions.
Radiant’s launch follows the Trump administration’s long-term support for evangelical Christianity and its ongoing criticism of transgender rights.
