Since 2015, the Mozilla Foundation has incubated The Coral Project to support journalism and improve online dialog around the world through privacy-centered, open source software. Originally founded as a two-year collaboration between Mozilla, The New York Times and the Washington Post, it became entirely a Mozilla project in 2017.

Over the past 3.5 years, The Coral Project has developed two software tools, a series of guides and best practices, and grown a community of journalism technologists around the world advancing privacy and better online conversation.

Coral’s first tool, Ask, has been used by journalists in several countries, including the Spotlight team at the Boston Globe, whose series on racism used Ask on seven different occasions, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Local Reporting.

The Coral Project’s main tool, the Talk platform, now powers the comments for nearly 50 newsrooms in 11 countries, including The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, The Intercept, and the Globe and Mail. The Coral Project has also collaborated with academics and technologists, running events and working with researchers to reduce online harassment and raise the quality of conversation on the decentralized web.

After 3.5 years at Mozilla, the time is right for Coral software to move further into the journalism space, and grow with the support of an organization grounded in that industry. And so, in January, the entire Coral Project team will join Vox Media, a leading media company with deep ties in online community engagement.

Under Vox Media’s stewardship, The Coral Project will receive the backing of a large company with an unrivaled collection of journalists as well as experience in the area of Software as a Service. This combination will help specifically to grow the adoption of Coral’s commenting platform Talk, while continuing as an open source project that respects user privacy.

The Coral Project has built a community of journalists and technologists who care deeply about improving the quality of online conversation. Mozilla will continue to support and highlight the work of this community as champions of a healthy, humane internet that is accessible to all.

We are excited for the new phase of The Coral Project at Vox Media, and hope you will join us in celebrating its success so far, and in supporting our shared vision for a better internet.