Many users are drawn to social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube to stay updated on news.
However, people are increasingly complaining about misinformation and artificial intelligence flooding their feeds. Concerns about trust have also risen, especially in light of lawsuits against Meta related to harming young people and concerns over the ownership of US-based TikTok. (Trust in traditional media has also eroded: a Pew Research study from October found just that 56% of US adults say they have a lot or some trust in the national media.)
Enter Say Soa new short-form video app designed to deliver curated news from vetted creators and independent journalists. Started for iOS users in the US and Canada this month after a private beta that started in November.
The app aims to differentiate itself from other platforms by offering a more intentional and personalized news experience that avoids endless scrolling.
One of SaySo’s standout features is the Daily Digest. When creating a profile, users can select topics of interest such as politics, social issues, public health or crime, and the app curates a set of videos for them each day. This option is refreshed every 20 hours.
To explore a wider range of topics, there is an Explore page where users can discover additional content from different creators. SaySo also includes standard features such as the ability to follow others such as, save, comment and share.
Specifically, SaySo requires creators to include sources of information directly in their videos, with the goal of building trust with users. The app also combines human and AI moderation with source validation to ensure content integrity.
“Content is not automatically published,” Dion Bailey, co-founder and CTO, explains to TechCrunch. “Everything goes through a moderation queue, so most problems are caught before they reach readers. If something slips by and is flagged, we investigate it, address it directly to the creator, and remove it if it crosses the line.”
In addition, SaySo is developing a “community notes” feature, allowing users to participate in the accountability process through a crowdsourced data control approach similar to that of X and TikTok.
At launch, SaySo had about 30 creators. Among them is Nico Agosta, who first gained attention with his “Stocking the Capitol” video series, where he delves into the financial dealings of members of the US Congress. There’s also Dr. Victoria, who focuses on issues related to racial justice and social change, and Isabelle Ravena, a freelance journalist with features in publications like National Geographic.
On the issue of paying creators, Ramin Beheshti, CEO and co-founder of SaySo, says that “many [creators] they have come in as founding partners and have been subsidized since day one. In the coming months, we’ll be building our full monetization infrastructure, and when that revenue comes in, the vast majority goes directly to creators.” He declined to provide details on the monetization infrastructure or what the revenue split will be.
Beheshti previously served as head of product and technology at Dow Jones.
SaySo is the flagship app of Caliber, formerly known as The News Movement, which was founded in 2022 and rebranded in 2025 to focus on social, short-form journalism.
“We wanted to create a new kind of news product that would help people, rather than add to the familiar experience of so many of us,” says Beheshti. “We overlay that with what Caliber taught us about creators and the changing shape of modern media, and we think we’ve unlocked something very special.”
Looking ahead, the company plans to launch SaySo in the UK in the summer, with further expansion into additional markets throughout this year and 2027.
