The vaunted new Digg was launched last week but reports are negative so far, with users saying they preferred Digg1.0 and launching an assault on the Top News section of the site by posting links to competitor Reddit. Digg has been updated and given a Twitteresque feel, with a suggested users list that promotes selected Digg profiles such as publishers and celebrities. This feature appears to be skewing the results on the front page of the site (because stories promoted by these users are being upvoted more often) and prompting accusations of bias in a platform that is intended to be democratic.
Digg had to deal with criticism earlier this month when a censorship campaign by an organised Digg user bloc known as the Digg Patriots was uncovered. The Patriots allegedly buried thousands of news stories they deemed too liberal or progressive, preventing them from ever getting to the high-trafficked front page of the site. This clandestine group activity violates Digg’s terms of service and has undoubtedly influenced the content that thousands of readers were exposed to on Digg, and indirectly on the countless blogs and social media platforms that source content from social bookmarking sites such as Digg.
