The battle for censorship online has been raging on social media for more than a decade.
Netizens have clamored for unfettered free speech, while their detractors say that some things are better left not said. Somewhere in the middle, though, exists a new app that is going viral for one line: “Jesus is watching you!”
‘Half of the songs nowadays have no clean version.’
A post seen by more than 1 million people on X alluded to a Big Brother-style app that monitors the listening habits of music lovers. However, one chat with the app’s founder is likely to put that idea to bed.
The app is called Verso, and while on its face it is indeed an app designed to help censor music, the application’s stated intent is to fill in the gap of parental control settings on streaming services by acting as an intentional filter between the service and the listener.
Citing that around 92% of today’s top streaming songs are explicit, Verso says it wants to put parents and families in control of what they hear.
Co-founder Jonathan Bernal told Blaze News directly that he left his former job with the Google Gemini AI team because he wanted to use his skills to develop technology that supports the family unit, unlike most tech out there.
“Kids hear everything,” Verso says in its video. Bernal backs that up.
“Half a billion families are listening to music, and half of the songs nowadays have no clean version,” he said. “Parents are constantly reaching for the mute or skip button.”
In order ensure a listening experience in which parents don’t have to worry about blasting out adult content, the app syncs with music streaming services and filters out profanity or certain themes entirely. The system is akin to a time when content moderation on television could be trusted.
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To avoid a one-size-fits-all application, Bernal said it was important for the app to be able to make any song instantly “customizable.”
“You can make it family-friendly; you can make any song align with your values,” Bernal said.
This comes through the settings, where users can filter out sexual innuendo, profanity, sacrilegious messages, or anything they consider to be unpalatable. All of those options can be applied globally, but the fun part comes in the individual settings.
Any song specifically can be changed, and users are free to customize how the music gets censored. Bernal noted how many videos have gone viral of parents on TikTok using duck sounds for when their kids are in the car.
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Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto/Getty Images
For clarification, the entrepreneur said yes, the viral image of the app asking users to repent is real.
Bernal said he is a Christian man and hopes to continue the app’s success so he can help promote the family unit.
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