Many individuals are turning to platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube for news updates. However, concerns have emerged regarding the proliferation of misinformation and poorly curated content on these sites, contributing to a growing mistrust in their reliability. This distrust is reflected in a Pew Research study, indicating that only 56% of U.S. adults express confidence in national news outlets.
In response to these challenges, a new short-form video application called SaySo has launched for iOS users in the U.S. and Canada, following a private beta phase that began in November. SaySo aims to deliver carefully curated news from trustworthy creators and independent journalists, differentiating itself from competitors by providing intentional and personalised news consumption without the endless scrolling common to many social networks.
One of SaySo’s key features is the Daily Digest, which allows users to select their topics of interest—ranging from politics to public health—to receive a daily curated set of videos that refresh every 20 hours. The app also includes an Explore page for discovering content from various creators, along with standard social media functionalities such as following, liking, saving, commenting, and sharing.
To foster trust, SaySo mandates that creators provide sources for their information within their videos. The platform combines human and AI moderation for content verification to maintain integrity. “Content doesn’t auto-publish,” said co-founder and CTO Dion Bailey, emphasising the importance of a moderation queue to catch potential issues before they reach users. A future addition to the platform aims to introduce community notes, enabling users to engage in a crowd-sourced fact-checking initiative similar to those of X and TikTok.
At launch, SaySo is collaborating with around 30 creators, including journalist Nico Agosta, known for scrutinising Congress members’ finances, and Dr. Victoria, who addresses racial justice and social change. SaySo’s CEO Ramin Beheshti noted the launch of a monetisation strategy, indicating that many creators onboarded as founding partners already receive a stipend, with plans for a more extensive monetisation framework in the future.
Founded in 2022, SaySo is the flagship app of Caliber (formerly The News Movement), which aims to revolutionise news consumption by alleviating the overwhelming experience often associated with news media. Beheshti envisions a platform that meets the evolving needs of modern audiences and intends to expand SaySo into the U.K. by summer 2024, with further growth planned for additional markets over the coming years.
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