Radiant Mobile builds Jesus-oriented mobile network with porn filter
The US mobile provider Radiant Mobile is launching a mobile service oriented towards Jesus. It completely excludes certain content.
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A clean mobile network for Christians in the USA – that is the idea of Radiant Mobile. The mobile network offers various filters that block access to pornographic and other content.
“We will create an environment – and we think we have every right to do so – that is oriented towards Jesus, free from pornography, free from LGBT and free from Trans,” Radiant Mobile founder Paul Fisher told the US science magazine MIT Technology Review the US science magazine MIT Technology Review. The mobile offering will be available from May 5th.
According to Fisher, Radiant Mobile works with the Israeli cybersecurity company Allot to block certain content categories. In addition to pornography, these include filters for gender, LGBT and trans content, gaming, violence, or self-harm. Some categories, including the porn filter, are blocked by default and cannot be deactivated even by adult users.
Filtering at the network level
Filtering at the network level is not uncommon; for example, some US network operators filter websites that are notorious for spreading malware. Many also offer parents the option to set up filters that prevent minor children from accessing unsuitable content. What is new, however, is that a US mobile operator is using network-level filters that cannot be deactivated by adult customers.
To filter content, websites are divided into more than a hundred categories. If a website from one of the categories is accessed, it is not loaded. However, many websites cannot be clearly assigned to a specific category.
This means that in the end, Fisher and his colleagues decide what their customers get to see and what they don't. This is strongly reminiscent of the filters used by authoritarian regimes to regulate which content and offerings their subjects are allowed to access.
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Radiant Mobile does not operate its network but acts as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) that buys bandwidth from a network operator, in this case T-Mobile. The network operator told the magazine that T-Mobile has no direct business relationship with Radiant Mobile. CompaxDigital, the MVNO manager, is responsible for this. The company did not want to comment on the MVNO's filtering measures.
(wpl)
