Skip to main content

The context you need, when you need it

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our own.

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?

Join now

Julie Cordua is defending children with technology

Cordua is No. 51 on the Recode 100.

wearethorn.org

Julie Cordua is defending children with technology

Cordua is No. 51 on the Recode 100.

Rani Molla
Rani Molla was a senior correspondent at Vox and has been focusing her reporting on the future of work. She has covered business and technology for more than a decade — often in charts — including at Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal.

As CEO of Thorn, Julie Cordua helps build technology to defend children from sexual abuse.

Thorn’s products and platforms help keep companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter from being used for abusive content. They also help identify child pornography and trafficking victims, and catch predators. The products are employed by 1,300 law enforcement agencies in 23 countries. In 2017 alone, they helped identify more than 10,000 victims of sexual abuse.

This year, her team has doubled in size to 19 people, most of whom are engineers and product managers. “It’s a unique entity in that it’s a nonprofit but it’s also a product- and technology-led organization,” Cordua told Recode.

That’s an unusual mix for a tech startup. And the stakes are higher than at many companies.

“It is intense. One thing I’ve heard from our team is that if something breaks in our product, they’re constantly thinking, ‘Did I miss a child?’ You don’t hear that from engineering teams every day.”

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

More in Technology

Podcasts
Are humanoid robots all hype?Are humanoid robots all hype?
Podcast
Podcasts

AI is making them better — but they’re not going to be doing your chores anytime soon.

By Avishay Artsy and Sean Rameswaram
Future Perfect
The old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemicThe old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemic
Future Perfect

Glycol vapors, explained.

By Shayna Korol
Future Perfect
Elon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wantsElon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wants
Future Perfect

It’s not about who wins. It’s about the dirty laundry you air along the way.

By Sara Herschander
Life
Why banning kids from AI isn’t the answerWhy banning kids from AI isn’t the answer
Life

What kids really need in the age of artificial intelligence.

By Anna North
Culture
Anthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque messAnthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque mess
Culture

“Your AI monster ate all our work. Now you’re trying to pay us off with this piece of garbage that doesn’t work.”

By Constance Grady
Future Perfect
Some deaf children are hearing again because of a new gene therapySome deaf children are hearing again because of a new gene therapy
Future Perfect

A medical field that almost died is quietly fixing one disease at a time.

By Bryan Walsh