Confronting threats to open societies with scalable solutions.

DNS manipulation is one of the most common cyberattacks used to block access to websites and communication tools. As we were developing Intra, an app that makes it easy to bypass DNS manipulation, we worked closely with Venezuelans to regularly test the tool and give us technical and design feedback. Intra is now used by people in dozens of countries around the world who need a way to access news sites, communication tools and platforms.

In 2018 we worked in Ukraine, a country besieged by disinformation, to collaborate with journalists and technologists who were working to uncover coordinated disinformation campaigns.This inspired us to build tools that could help journalists and technologists more effectively combat disinformation.

Our team interviewed former and currently incarcerated ISIS members to better understand the role of the internet in radicalization. These conversations informed how we approach developing new methods for undermining violent extremist ideology and thwarting how these groups recruit online.

Ahead of the French elections in 2017, journalists and civil society organizations faced persistent phishing and DDoS attacks as part of a coordinated effort to stop reporting information critical to the election. We created Protect Your Election, a toolkit of election security tools and resources to help ensure that journalism and election information is accessible when a nation needs it most.

In 2013, distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks were being used to take down critical sites and services in Kenya ahead of their election. This prevented Kenyans from accessing the information they needed during a critical time. We created Project Shield, a free DDoS mitigation service for news sites, non-profit organizations, and election information websites.

Toxicity online can overwhelm content moderators, forcing some publishers to close their comment sections. Jigsaw explored how technology could help people safely express themselves online and engage in healthy conversation. We wanted to build technology that could help those already doing this important work effectively, so we partnered with the New York Times to identify new ways that technology could help them scale their moderation and open up more of their articles to conversation.