Most social media apps are not friendly towards respectful debate. Users can either quickly get heated or worse, lock themselves in an echo chamber. That’s why 12 SCHS students formed their own company, Dyspute. Their motto, “Get your opinions out there,” encaptures what Dyspute is about.

“Our vision is for people to speak up and be heard,” freshmen Arav Sarma, chief financial officer, said. “It’s a forum where people can share their ideas and opinions, without being told what to say and what not to say.”

Dyspute, an extracurricular project, will be an app for users to debate topics from the news. The topics take the form of a question for users to answer, and will update every week to align with what is happening in the world.The beta version of the app, which can be found on dyspute.com, currently displays the topic “Should abortion be illegal?” Users can answer yes or no, and give their justification as to why.

The team recently implemented an account system in order to deal with spam on the forums. Currently, they are working with Google to add a filter for swear words and racial slurs.

“We want it to be clean and nontoxic, but at the same time, people can share their opinions,” Sarma said.

The next big step for Dyspute is to create an A.I. feature that can automate debate topics from the news, which they anticipate will take several months. Their goal is to have the A.I. create threads using information from news outlets.

Dyspute is currently copyright pending, and the team anticipates to receive a sealed copyright for the app when they finish the coding. According to freshman Chief Operations Officer Aiden Tran, once the final product is finished, they plan to host a launch party that will be open to any SCHS student.

Presently, Dyspute is looking for more coders, specifically ones who are experienced in JavaScript and Ruby as well as graphic designers and accountants. To apply, students can go to the careers page on Dyspute’s website. According to sophomore Ayman Alamayri, CEO, joining the team is an opportunity to be part of a unique experience.

“There’s a lot of hot topics, but there’s not the one site to argue about it, a debate site that looks as good as ours,” Alamayri said.

Update: A previous version of this article contained incorrect information about the Dyspute app. The Dyspute team does not have a method of “sentiment analysis,” nor are they associated with the Code Exchange club.