Digg returns: Original founder and Reddit co-creator team up to fix toxic social media

So dig this, the early internet community pioneer Digg is making a comeback under the leadership of its original founder Kevin Rose and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.

This relaunch focuses on fostering genuine human connection in an increasingly hostile online environment, attempting to create a social platform that prioritizes meaningful community interactions over engagement metrics that drive outrage. At a time when many social networks struggle with toxic discourse, this revival represents a significant attempt to reimagine what social media could be.

The big picture: Digg, which pioneered content voting mechanisms before Reddit, is being relaunched with a fresh approach to online community building that leverages AI while prioritizing human connection.

• The platform originally launched in 2004 and accumulated 40 million monthly users at its peak before being sold off in parts in 2012.
• Kevin Rose, Digg’s original founder, is teaming up with Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian to reimagine the platform for today’s social media landscape.

Why this matters: The relaunch comes at a time when many perceive social media to have become increasingly divided and hostile, with algorithms often prioritizing outrage over meaningful interaction.

• Justin Mezzell, the new company’s CEO, described today’s social landscape as “harsher than it’s ever been before” with platforms becoming “more disconnected” than in previous eras.
• The team aims to counter prevailing social media trends by creating spaces where genuine conversations and earnest sharing can flourish.

Key details: The revitalized platform plans to use AI to handle moderation “grunt work” while enabling nuanced approaches to community management.

• Rather than implementing binary content policies that simply ban or allow posts, Digg plans to use more sophisticated moderation approaches that consider community context.
• Rose explained that content might be permitted but have limited visibility based on its appropriateness for specific community standards – for example, posts with inappropriate language in a meditation group might only be shown to 2% of users.

What’s next: The new version of Digg will launch within weeks as both a website and mobile application.