Digg’s attempt to relaunch with a Reddit-like platform quickly faltered, but the CEO is already strategizing for another revival.
Just a year ago, Digg founder Kevin Rose, Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian, and others promised a community-driven social discovery platform when they announced Digg’s relaunch. However, two months post the public release of their Reddit-inspired site, Digg announced a “hard reset,” terminating operations and planning significant staff reductions.
Initially, the plan included using AI to eliminate tasks managed by moderators and community managers, as stated by Rose in The Verge. Now, the new Digg CEO, Justin Mezzell, admits they underestimated the impact of bots, remarking that their efforts to mitigate them were insufficient despite banning thousands of accounts and using internal tools and external vendors.
Mezzell, however, describes this closure as a temporary setback, stating, “We’re not giving up. Digg isn’t going away,” with a dedicated team ready to rebuild with fresh strategies. They also announced that Kevin Rose would return full-time in April, and the Diggnation podcast will continue in preparation for yet another relaunch.