Many moduli stacks of complex algebraic varieties are known to enjoy hyperbolic properties. The best results have so far been proven using sophisticated analytic tools. Though the situation is very different in positive characteristic (e.g. the moduli stack of principally polarized abelian varieties of dimension at least 2 contains rational curves), I will explain how one can reprove many hyperbolicity results by reduction to positive characteristic, using the nonabelian Hodge theory in positive characteristic developed by Ogus and Vologodsky.