Washington D.C. — Today, Moonshot was named to Fast Company magazine’s prestigious annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies for 2022. This year’s list honors businesses that are making the biggest impact on their industries and culture as a whole. It provides both a snapshot and a road map for the future of innovation across the most dynamic sectors of the economy.
“The world’s most innovative companies play an essential role in addressing the most pressing issues facing society,” said Fast Company Deputy Editor David Lidsky.
In response to the news, Founders Vidhya Ramalingam and Ross Frenett released the following statement:
“We’re honored to be among the top 10 companies in the security sector on this year’s list. Since our founding in 2015, we’ve delivered time and again for our clients by disrupting some of the most intractable online harms, from violent extremism to disinformation to child sexual exploitation and abuse. This recognition is testament to our team’s tireless commitment to innovation, evidence and human rights. We believe Moonshot’s work has never been more important and we are excited for what this recognition means for the future of our work and that of our clients around the globe.”
In a year where the spread of online harms has never been greater, Moonshot has scaled up its efforts to meet the challenge. In 2021, Moonshot delivered initiatives to counter the spread of harms on 51 platforms, from mainstream platforms like Facebook and Twitter, to niche platforms where hate, disinformation and violence spread like wildfire. This has been a truly global effort, covering 22 countries, over 18 languages, and ranging from counter-disinformation campaigns to directly disrupting perpetrators of child sexual exploitation.
One of Moonshot’s key innovations has been designing digital campaigns that effectively offer support services to violent incel, white supremacist and jihadist audiences in order to reduce their risk of violence. The company made significant advancements in this approach in 2021, building off pilot projects in countries as diverse as Bangladesh, Australia, and the U.S., and offering text-message based services for the first time.
In particular, Moonshot surged its efforts to counter violence during the 2020 Presidential election in the U.S. Over four months, Moonshot reached people at-risk of violence across the country over 100 million times, offering mental health support, guides on having difficult conversations about politics, and promoting active listening skills. The company connected people with services to address election-related anxiety, loneliness, anger, despair, or emotional abuse, and thereby reduce the risk of violence in the post-election period.
Globally, Moonshot stepped up its efforts to counter disinformation. In Indonesia, Moonshot has been testing the efficacy of gamifying media literacy training to help inoculate people who are otherwise vulnerable to ethnically-charged disinformation. Results continue to be positive, showing that users who play the game spend around 12 times as long engaging with the content than those who only visit similar static content on a website. In Mali, Moonshot analyzed COVID-19 misinformation narratives, provided recommendations for resilience building campaigns and ran training sessions on strategic communication skills for youth. Post training data showed an enormous increase in overall skills and confidence in tackling disinformation and creating digital campaigns.
In 2022, Moonshot is developing campaigns designed to protect election workers and disrupt conspiracies that might lead to violence around the upcoming U.S. elections. Moonshot also continues to deepen partnerships with tech companies to develop innovative safety-by-design tools and services that can help make platforms safer, including helping Meta/Facebook expand its Redirect Initiative from the U.S. and Australia to Germany, Indonesia, the UK and Pakistan.
ABOUT MOONSHOT
Moonshot is a global social enterprise working to end online harms, applying evidence, ethics and human rights. Moonshot develops new tech and methodologies to expose threats, disrupt malicious actors and protect vulnerable audiences online. Working to end online harms means making communities, governments and businesses safer, both online and off, around the world.
WHAT DOES MOONSHOT MEAN BY ONLINE HARMS?
Moonshot defines online harm as content or activity that endangers individuals and/or public safety. While Moonshot typically focuses on online harms which can cause physical harm, either to individuals or society, the online harms in scope contribute to a wide array of negative impacts on society, including the degradation of democracy and human rights. Moonshot primarily works across six types of online harm: Violent extremism; disinformation and misinformation; targeted violence and hate speech; gender-based violence; child sexual exploitation and abuse; human trafficking, modern slavery and forced labour.
ABOUT FAST COMPANY
Fast Company is the only media brand fully dedicated to the vital intersection of business, innovation, and design, engaging the most influential leaders, companies, and thinkers on the future of business. Headquartered in New York City, Fast Company is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with our sister publication Inc., and can be found online at www.fastcompany.com.
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