Digg’s open beta shuts down after just two months, blaming AI bot spam
It’s only been a year since Digg founder Kevin Rose, Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian, and a few others announced the link-sharing site would relaunch, promising a “social discovery built by communities, not by algorithms.” Now, two months after opening its Reddit-like platform to the public, Digg is announcing a “hard reset” that’s shutting down operations and will “significantly downsize the Digg team.”
When they announced its relaunch, Rose told The Verge that AI could “remove the janitorial work of moderators and community managers.” Now, the new Digg’s CEO Justin Mezzell writes in a note pinned to the homepage that, “We knew bots were part of the landscape, but we didn’t appreciate the scale, sophistication, or speed at which they’d find us. We banned tens of thousands of accounts. We deployed internal tooling and industry-standard external vendors. None of it was enough.”
Despite that, Mezzell paints the shutdown as temporary, saying, “We’re not giving up. Digg isn’t going away,” with “A small but determined team is stepping up to rebuild with a completely reimagined angle of attack.” The blog post also announces that Kevin Rose is returning as a full-time employee in April, and the Diggnation podcast will continue recording as they work toward relaunching, again.
It’s only been a year since Digg founder Kevin Rose, Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian, and a few others announced the link-sharing site would relaunch, promising a “social discovery built by communities, not by algorithms.” Now, two months after opening its Reddit-like platform to the public, Digg is announcing a “hard…
Recent Posts
- Ukrainian combat FPV drone simulator Remote Reaper hits Steam 1.0 with real-world EW jamming and vehicle weak spots
- Quordle hints and answers for Monday, October 19 (game #1729)
- An Xbox Series X can now run PlayStation 5 games, but there’s a catch
- A Savannah police officer gave her Flock login to her ICE agent husband
- Save 15% on this Orico Obook Ryzen 7 6800H laptop, down to $587 — but you have to pre-order it before 10/23 to get the discount
Archives
- October 2026
- September 2026
- August 2026
- July 2026
- June 2026
- May 2026
- April 2026
- March 2026
- February 2026
- January 2026
- December 2025
- November 2025
- October 2025
- September 2025
- August 2025
- July 2025
- June 2025
- May 2025
- April 2025
- March 2025
- February 2025
- January 2025
- December 2024
- November 2024
- October 2024
- September 2024
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023