A new phone network just dropped in the U.S., and it’s arriving with a mission statement so specific it almost reads like a dare: no porn, no LGBT content, and absolutely no exceptions.
RELATED: Sniffies Gets $100M—Is This the End of Grindr as We Know It?
Radiant Mobile is calling itself “Jesus-centric.” What it really means is your phone might suddenly act like certain people—and entire conversations—never existed. Clean? Maybe. Selective? Very.
A “Jesus-centric” signal with selective reception
“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,” said Radiant Mobile’s founder, Paul Fisher, to MIT Technology Review. That’s not subtle branding—that’s the whole thesis.
RELATED: Policy Pile-Up: New Laws Are Leaving LGBTQ+ Rights in the Dust
The service uses filtering tools from Israeli cybersecurity firm Allot to sort websites into more than 100 categories, blocking pornographic content across the board. But it doesn’t stop at explicit material. A default-on setting also flags “sexuality” content, which, in this case, includes anything related to LGBT identities.
So yes, in this version of the internet, adult content and basic identity are apparently sharing a folder. Fisher even broke down how precise the filtering can get. Entire sections of legitimate websites can be sliced out if they don’t fit the brief.
“They have a subsection of one of their websites that’s totally focused on, you know, trans equality,” Fisher said of the university.
Translation: the homepage lives, but the LGBT tab? Gone.
He explained that www.yale.edu would likely remain accessible—but lgbtq.yale.edu would be blocked. And if LGBT content starts showing up too often?
“If we see [LGBT content] on the front pages consistently of Yale University, we’ll block them, too,” said Fisher.
So the Wi-Fi works. The internet works. It’s just… curated to the point where entire communities get edited out like a bad draft.
Filtering content, filtering lives
Fisher’s career pivot is doing a lot. He once worked with supermodels like Naomi Campbell and even ran a reality show about turning people from rehab centers and homeless shelters into models. Now, he’s building a network that decides which content makes it onto your screen in the first place.
“Am I proud that I spent 35 years creating star models or star influencers? Not at all,” he said.
Different runway, same level of control.
Radiant Mobile doesn’t even own cell towers—it runs on purchased bandwidth from T-Mobile, like many smaller carriers. The entry price is $29.99 a month, with Fisher saying some of that could eventually be donated to churches. There are also plans to expand into countries like Mexico and South Korea, because apparently this is going global.
Blocking content… or blocking people?
For chief operating officer Chris Klimis, the motivation is framed as urgent. “We’ve got to figure out some way to close the door to the digital space. That’s what we’re trying to do,” he said.
He pointed to concerns about pornography exposure and surveys suggesting many pastors have encountered it. Which is where the company draws its line: block the content, solve the problem.
But here’s where things get a little… messy. Because while blocking adult content is one conversation, placing LGBT content in that same category is a whole different one. One is explicit. The other is people existing, finding resources, or, at minimum, clicking a university webpage without it vanishing mid-scroll.
And when a network starts deciding which content counts as acceptable, it’s not just filtering—it’s editing reality. Which, let’s be honest, is one way to create a “clean” internet. Just remove everything you don’t agree with and call it a day.
Of course, people are still going to be people. Curiosity exists. So do workarounds. Meaning somewhere out there, someone is signing up for Radiant Mobile… and quietly keeping a second phone on the side.
Because if history—and human behavior—has taught us anything, it’s this: Daddy’s going to have a burner phone for Grindr.
Source: NY Post