News and Resources - Moonshot

News and Resources

Check out a selection of Moonshot news and resources.

The real-world dangers of online myths

Our Founder & CEO Vidhya Ramalingam took to the TED stage to discuss how information is manipulated online to serve as a justification for violence. We wont be able to fact check our way out of this. Instead of endlessly debating the facts – we need to prepare societies early to encounter information manipulation.

Moonshot in the media

Moonshot featured in PBS Exploring Hate series

Moonshot featured in The Economist’s Now & Next series

Moonshot takes the stage at the Eradicate Hate Global Summit

Moonshot featured in PBS Exploring Hate series

Moonshot featured in The Economist’s Now & Next series

Moonshot takes the stage at the Eradicate Hate Global Summit

Featured Reports

WNBA’s Chicago Sky Announces First-of-Its-Kind Partnership with Moonshot to Protect Players from Online Threats and Abuse

Today, the WNBA’s Chicago Sky announced an innovative partnership with Moonshot, a global leader in countering online threats, to leverage national security technology to keep the team’s full roster safe. As the first team in the league to deploy this type of technology, the Chicago Sky is setting the standard for how sports organizations can proactively address online hate, harassment, and abuse targeting athletes.

Adapting Violence Prevention to the Digital World - A Framework for Action

Moonshot’s ‘Adapting Violence Prevention to the Digital World: A Framework for Action’ highlights the current disconnect between online and offline violence prevention, and therefore the urgent need to enhance prevention across the online environment.

Ten years ago, Moonshot launched the first pilot approaches to reach people at risk of violence online and offer access to critical prevention services to prevent violence. Through a decade of structured experimentation, working in partnership with governments and tech platforms, we developed a robust framework for delivering violence prevention online. This approach is now delivered around the world, from Albania, Australia, and Bangladesh to Canada, New Zealand, and the United States. The approach has been adapted to prevent terrorism, targeted violence, and gender-based violence.

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Moonshot - Practice Standards for Online Referrals

This document outlines Moonshot’s practice standards for intervention programs to respond to violent extremism (VE) and other harms online.

The purpose is to ensure all interventions we conduct are ethical, legal, and apply current best practices in violence prevention and safeguarding.

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Press Release – Moonshot Brings National Security Tech to Sport

Moonshot and CTH Advisors, an investment banking and advisory firm specializing in sports, media and entertainment, have announced a strategic partnership to combat the rising digital threats in the sports industry.

Incels: A Guide to Symbols and Terminology

Incels have developed their own coded and highly specialised language, which they use to communicate in online forums and spread their ideology. This guide, produced for Public Safety Canada, aims to demystify the jargon and symbols they employ; provide definitions and context; and demonstrate how language choices fit into a wider system of belief. By doing so, we hope to empower practitioners, front-line service workers and journalists to recognize individuals who are involved with the incel community, understand their unique frames of reference, and ultimately, feel able to engage with them.

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Understanding and Preventing Incel Violence in Canada

Involuntary celibates (hereafter “incels”) are an online community of men who define themselves by their inability to access sex with women. Their online ecosystem contains violent misogynistic content, much of which is presented and discussed through this ideological lens. In addition to encouraging violence against women, vocal members of many incel communities endorse white supremacy, suicidal ideation, and attacks against members of the public. While there is a growing body of research on online incel communities, to date there has not been a systematic, multi- platform study of how they communicate. This report is intended to improve understanding of the incel community and the scale of the community’s online activity in Canada.

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Countering Radicalization to Violence in Ontario and Quebec: Canada’s First Online-Offline Interventions Model

Over a one year period from April 2021 – March 2022, Moonshot partnered with three violence prevention organizations to deliver an online interventions pilot in two Canadian provinces. The program advertised psychosocial support services to individuals engaging with extremist content online. Access to these services was voluntary, confidential, and anonymous by design. Based on successful results, this program has since been expanded by Public Safety Canada into a multi-year initiative covering five Canadian provinces.

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Online threat data and real-world incidents – A comparative analysis

Moonshot monitors online threats and encouragement to violence against over 20 different communities and groups in the United States who are often targeted with hate and abuse. Moonshot has conducted an assessment of the relationship between online threats and offline violence. For this analysis, Moonshot compared online threats on Telegram, Gab, 4chan, X, BitChute and Reddit towards Black and LGBTQ+ communities with the FBI’s reported offline hate crimes against these same groups.

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Extremism across the online gaming ecosystem

The nexus between violent extremism and online gaming has been a pressing issue among researchers, policy makers and law enforcement agencies for some time. Violent perpetrators have used well-known video games to prepare for their attacks. This report, produced for the European Union, investigates the prevalence of extremist content in public spaces across the online gaming ecosystem. It focuses on key extremist narratives and themes, the role of games and influential voices, as well as recruitment and radicalization tactics.

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The valorization of mass shooters online

In the weeks following the attempted assassination of President Trump on July 13, 2024, the available evidence suggests the perpetrator’s behaviors were similar to mass shooters, more so than the expected behaviors of a political assassin. This highlights the importance of understanding the normalization of and valorization of mass violence online. This report offers critical evidence to inform prevention efforts across the country, and ultimately reduce the risk of violence related to mass shootings.

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Moonshot and Ethics

The Ethics Audit

Moonshot commissions an annual Ethics Audit, conducted by an independent human rights organization.

Check out the Moonshot Ethics Framework here

View the Moonshot Ethics Audit:
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WNBA’s Chicago Sky Announces First-of-Its-Kind Partnership with Moonshot to Protect Players from Online Threats and Abuse

CHICAGO (July 1, 2025) — Today, the WNBA’s Chicago Sky announced an innovative partnership with Moonshot, a global leader in countering online threats, to leverage national security technology to keep the team’s full roster safe. As the first team in the league to deploy this type of technology, the Chicago Sky is setting the standard for how sports organizations can proactively address online hate, harassment, and abuse targeting athletes.

Moonshot’s goal is not just to understand the problem, but to solve it. Moonshot’s dedicated team of online security experts will use advanced technology to identify and remove concerning content, assess credible risks, take actions to mitigate harm, and help the Sky interpret the underlying drivers of online abuse.

“Hate and harassment have no place in sports,” said Nadia Rawlinson, Co-owner and Operating Chairman of the Chicago Sky. “Our partnership with Moonshot is about proactively tackling online hate, harassment, and abuse across social media and on the dark web, so our players and coaches can focus on the game of basketball and delighting our fans around the world.”

Chicago Sky players are leaders and role models on and off the court, a position which also places them at increased risk. The Sky’s decisive action to implement this solution reflects the organization’s long-standing commitment to player health and safety, including mental health and well-being.

“The data is abundantly clear. Female athletes, especially women of color and members of the LGBTQIA+ community, face disproportionate amounts of online harassment, abuse, and threats of violence,” continued Rawlinson. “Unfortunately, these incidents are increasing commensurately with the growth in women’s sports, sports betting, and use of artificial intelligence.”

The Chicago Sky-Moonshot partnership comes at a critical time when online threats against athletes and public figures across all industries are rising. For example, according to Moonshot’s findings, 92% of women in public life experience abuse online and 31% of this harassment is sexual in nature.

“We are honored to support the Chicago Sky in this strategic and pioneering effort to protect their players and coaches. Our work is grounded in a decade of national security experience understanding the origins of online abuse and what to do about it,” said Vidhya Ramalingam, CEO of Moonshot. We are grateful for the opportunity to leverage our technology and expertise to advance player safety at a time when interest in women’s sports is at an all-time high. We hope this unique, first-of-its-kind partnership will serve as a model for other sports teams and leagues.”

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Adapting Violence Prevention to the Digital World - A Framework for Action

Moonshot’s ‘Adapting Violence Prevention to the Digital World: A Framework for Action’ highlights the current disconnect between online and offline violence prevention, and therefore the urgent need to enhance prevention across the online environment.

Ten years ago, Moonshot launched the first pilot approaches to reach people at risk of violence online and offer access to critical prevention services to prevent violence. Through a decade of structured experimentation, working in partnership with governments and tech platforms, we developed a robust framework for delivering violence prevention online. This approach is now delivered around the world, from Albania, Australia, and Bangladesh to Canada, New Zealand, and the United States. The approach has been adapted to prevent terrorism, targeted violence, and gender-based violence.

Reflecting on a decade of online prevention, the report covers the following areas of focus to support a framework for action:

Secondary prevention in practice: The report explains the appropriateness of ‘secondary’ prevention online – emphasising the importance of referral systems, assessment, triage and service provision as core capabilities for secondary prevention. These are critical steps which should be adapted for online delivery.
Adapting to the digital world: The report highlights the importance of building an infrastructure that adapts offline strategies for the digital environment, including the importance of creating a skilled provider network, designing effective online outreach strategies, and methods of initiating service delivery in virtual settings.
Ethical program design: The report offers ten key principles for designing ethical and evidence-based violence prevention programs – ensuring they respect human rights, implement best practices and avoid harm.

The report contributes critical insight into the urgency for building online intervention capabilities. Sharing ten years of case studies bridging the gap between the online and offline, this research offers guidance to inform the design and delivery of online prevention programs that are both safe and sustainable.

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