A new US phone network for Christians aims to block porn and gender-related content

美国一家面向基督徒的新型手机网络旨在屏蔽色情和性别相关内容

A new US-wide cell phone network marketed to Christians is set to launch next week. It blocks porn, which experts in network security say marks the first time a US cell plan has used network-level blocking for such content that can’t be turned off even by adult account owners. 一家面向基督徒营销的美国全国性手机网络将于下周推出。该网络会屏蔽色情内容，网络安全专家表示，这是美国手机套餐首次在网络层面进行此类屏蔽，且即便是成年账户所有者也无法关闭。

It’s also rolling out a filter on sexual content aimed at blocking material related to gender and trans issues, which will be optional but turned on by default across all plans. The network, which is currently being tested ahead of its May 5 launch date, will be run by Radiant Mobile, a newly launched mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). 该网络还将推出针对性内容的过滤器，旨在屏蔽与性别和跨性别议题相关的资料。此功能为可选，但在所有套餐中默认开启。该网络目前正在进行测试，预计于 5 月 5 日正式上线，由新成立的移动虚拟网络运营商 (MVNO) Radiant Mobile 运营。

These operators don’t own cell towers but buy bandwidth from the big providers (in this case, T-Mobile) and sell to specific demographics (President Trump announced his own MVNO last year called Trump Mobile; CREDOMobile sends donations to progressive causes). 这些运营商不拥有基站，而是从大型供应商（本例中为 T-Mobile）处购买带宽，并向特定人群销售（特朗普总统去年宣布成立了自己的 MVNO，名为 Trump Mobile；CREDOMobile 则会向进步派事业捐款）。

“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’s founder, Paul Fisher, told MIT Technology Review. “我们将创造一个以耶稣为中心、没有色情、没有 LGBT、没有跨性别内容的环境，我们认为我们完全有权这样做，”Radiant Mobile 的创始人保罗·费舍尔 (Paul Fisher) 对《麻省理工科技评论》表示。

A representative for T-Mobile did not comment on whether these content blocks violate any of its policies. In a statement, the representative added that T-Mobile does not have a direct relationship with Radiant Mobile but instead works through the MVNO manager CompaxDigital. T-Mobile 的一位代表未就这些内容屏蔽是否违反其政策发表评论。该代表在一份声明中补充说，T-Mobile 与 Radiant Mobile 没有直接关系，而是通过 MVNO 管理商 CompaxDigital 进行合作。

Fisher says he’s recruited a mix of Christian influencers to advertise the plan and has also done outreach to thousands of churches around the country, offering a way to have Radiant donate a portion of congregants’ $30-per-month subscription fee to their church. 费舍尔表示，他招募了一批基督教网红来宣传该套餐，并向全国数千家教会进行了推广，提供了一种让 Radiant 将信徒每月 30 美元订阅费的一部分捐赠给教会的方式。

Fisher has ambitions to market it beyond the US in other countries with significant Christian populations, like South Korea and Mexico. 费舍尔雄心勃勃，计划将该业务扩展到美国以外拥有大量基督徒人口的国家，如韩国和墨西哥。

At least one piece of Radiant’s pitch will sound familiar: the idea that the internet is awash in toxic sludge. It’s powered by content and algorithms that are making us more sad, hateful, and detached. A number of efforts aim to fix that, including contentious age verification laws and a coming wave of lawsuits alleging that social media companies knowingly got young users hooked on their platforms. Radiant 的宣传中至少有一点听起来很耳熟：互联网充斥着有毒的污泥。它由内容和算法驱动，使我们变得更加悲伤、充满仇恨和疏离。目前有许多努力旨在解决这一问题，包括备受争议的年龄验证法，以及即将到来的一波诉讼，指控社交媒体公司明知故犯，诱导年轻用户沉迷于其平台。

Fisher is pursuing the nuclear option. He says Radiant is working with the Israeli cybersecurity company Allot to block categories of content, such as material about violence or self-harm. Some categories are banned by default and cannot be allowed even for adult users. This includes pornography. 费舍尔正在采取“核选项”。他表示，Radiant 正在与以色列网络安全公司 Allot 合作，屏蔽暴力或自残等类别的相关内容。某些类别是默认禁止的，即使是成年用户也无法解除屏蔽，其中包括色情内容。

Chris Klimis, a minister in Orlando who was recruited to be the company’s chief operating officer, says part of the reason he got involved was to offer Christians a real way to “do something” about what he sees as a pornography crisis in the faith. He was appalled by a recent survey showing that 67% of pastors have a “personal history” with porn use. 奥兰多的一位牧师克里斯·克利米斯 (Chris Klimis) 被聘为该公司的首席运营官，他表示自己参与的部分原因是想为基督徒提供一种切实可行的方法，去应对他眼中教会内部的色情危机。最近的一项调查显示，67% 的牧师有“个人色情使用史”，这让他感到震惊。

And he worries his six children will come across porn on their devices, even if only inadvertently. “We’ve got to figure out some way to close the door to the digital space,” he says. “That’s what we’re trying to do.” 他担心自己的六个孩子会在设备上接触到色情内容，哪怕只是无意中看到的。“我们必须想办法关上数字空间的大门，”他说，“这就是我们正在努力做的事情。”

The technology to do this blocking is a blunt instrument: Allot groups website domains into more than a hundred categories, which include pornography but also violence, malware, gaming, and in Radiant Mobile’s case “sects,” which includes websites about Satanism. If one of its users tries to visit a website that belongs to a blocked category, the page won’t load. 实现这种屏蔽的技术是一种“钝器”：Allot 将网站域名分为一百多个类别，其中包括色情，也包括暴力、恶意软件、游戏，以及 Radiant Mobile 所称的“邪教”（包括关于撒旦教的网站）。如果用户尝试访问属于屏蔽类别的网站，页面将无法加载。

That’s harsher than app-based content blockers like Covenant Eyes, a Christian porn-quitting app that sends notifications to your friends or family if you slip up; those can be worked around or deleted. 这比基于应用程序的内容拦截器（如 Covenant Eyes）更为严厉。Covenant Eyes 是一款基督教戒色应用，如果你破戒，它会向你的朋友或家人发送通知；但这些应用是可以绕过或删除的。

“Blocking in the network is certainly not new,” says David Choffnes, a computer science professor and executive director of Northeastern University’s Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute. Such blocking is the backbone of censorship efforts by authoritarian governments, for example. But there are more benign ways it’s used too. US telecoms block particular domains known to be spreading malware and offer optional network-level controls to block adult content on kids’ phones. “在网络层面进行屏蔽当然不是什么新鲜事，”东北大学计算机科学教授兼网络安全与隐私研究所执行主任大卫·乔夫内斯 (David Choffnes) 说。例如，这种屏蔽是威权政府审查工作的支柱。但它也有更温和的用途。美国电信公司会屏蔽已知传播恶意软件的特定域名，并提供可选的网络级控制功能，以屏蔽儿童手机上的成人内容。

What is new is a US cell plan instituting network-level blocks that can’t be removed, even by adults. The trouble is that most websites don’t fit neatly into one category, leaving Fisher with enormous and subjective control over which are allowed or banned. 新鲜的是，美国的一款手机套餐在网络层面实施了连成年人都无法移除的屏蔽。问题在于，大多数网站并不能整齐地归入某一类别，这使得费舍尔对哪些网站被允许、哪些被禁止拥有了巨大且主观的控制权。

This is most apparent in his effort to block content related to gender identity. Anthony Re, a sales director at Allot, says the company does not have a category specific to gender but that “LGBT content” tends to fall into its sexuality category, which is described on Radiant Mobile’s website as “sites that provide information on sex, sex and teenagers, and sexual education, without pornographic content.” 这一点在他屏蔽性别认同相关内容的努力中表现得最为明显。Allot 的销售总监安东尼·雷 (Anthony Re) 表示，该公司没有专门针对性别的类别，但“LGBT 内容”往往会被归入其“性”类别。Radiant Mobile 的网站将该类别描述为“提供性、性与青少年以及性教育信息，但不含色情内容的网站”。

This category is blocked by default for all phones, a setting that can be changed by adult account owners. But if a news site starts hosting enough gender-related content, Fisher might not just label it as “press,” which is allowed, but also “sexuality,” thus blocking the whole domain to any phone with that category blocked. 该类别对所有手机默认屏蔽，成年账户所有者可以更改此设置。但如果一个新闻网站开始发布足够多的性别相关内容，费舍尔可能不仅会将其标记为“新闻”（这是允许的），还会将其标记为“性”，从而对所有开启了该类别屏蔽的手机封锁整个域名。

Fisher illustrates the subjectivity of such decisions with a recent example involving Yale University. Its general website, www.yale.edu, is categorized by Allot as education. “But they have a subsection of one of their websites that’s totally focused on, you know, trans equality,” Fisher says, referring to lgbtq.yale.edu. Because it’s a distinct domain, Radiant Mobile is able to place it in the sexuality category and block it. Yale’s main website remains unblocked, for now. 费舍尔用最近涉及耶鲁大学的一个例子来说明此类决策的主观性。其通用网站 www.yale.edu 被 Allot 归类为教育。费舍尔提到 lgbtq.yale.edu 时说：“但他们网站的一个子部分完全专注于，你知道的，跨性别平等。”由于这是一个独立的域名，Radiant Mobile 能够将其归入“性”类别并进行屏蔽。目前，耶鲁大学的主网站仍未被屏蔽。

“If we see [the LGBTQ content] on the front pages consistently of Yale University, we’ll block them too,” Fisher says. Managing website block lists is a professional pivot for Fisher, who spent his career not in telecoms but in fashion; he was an agent for supermodels like Naomi Campbell and members of the Hilton and Getty families, and he later hosted a reality show in which he found people in rehab facilities and… “如果我们看到耶鲁大学的首页持续出现 [LGBTQ 内容]，我们也会屏蔽他们，”费舍尔说。管理网站屏蔽列表对费舍尔来说是一次职业转型，他之前的职业生涯并非在电信行业，而是在时尚界；他曾是娜奥米·坎贝尔 (Naomi Campbell) 等超模以及希尔顿 (Hilton) 和盖蒂 (Getty) 家族成员的经纪人，后来还主持过一档真人秀节目，在节目中他寻找康复中心里的人并……