(Credit: Digg)
The internet is a very different place than it was 20 years ago, in no small part due to how much it is now occupied by sophisticated bots and AI agents programmed to carry out specific—and often selfish—tasks, rather than resharing cat images or low-budget Flash animations like in the internet’s olden days. Automated systems accounted for 51% of all web traffic in 2024, according to a report by cybersecurity firm Imperva, while the volume of AI-written articles also surpassed human-made work for the first time in late 2024, according to research analytics firm Graphite.
One victim of the rise of bots is Digg’s recent attempt at a comeback. Digg, which launched in 2004, allowed users to “digg” content from all around the internet, with the most dugg content surfacing on the front page. It was once one of the web’s most viewed websites. The company was sold in 2012 before pivoting to offer an entirely curated homepage of content. It was then purchased by its original owner Kevin Rose in 2025, alongside Reddit CEO Alexis Ohanian, and relaunched in beta at the start of 2026.
In a note on the now-deactivated website, Digg’s CEO said the problems with bots started within “hours” of the relaunch.
“We knew bots were part of the landscape, but we didn't appreciate the scale, sophistication, or speed at which they'd find us,” said Digg CEO Justin Mezzell. “We banned tens of thousands of accounts. We deployed internal tooling and industry-standard external vendors.
“None of it was enough.”
As a result of these issues, Digg has made the decision to pause its beta and “significantly downsize the Digg team.” Mezzell insists that "Digg isn't going away" and will instead rebuild "with a small but determined team." Rose will now return to work on Digg full-time as its CEO, and the project will become his "primary focus."
Digg's problems with fake engagement aren't entirely new. The platform had struggled with organized manipulation since its early days, with startups offering to get content to the front page for $700 back in the 2000s, or organized groups working to promote or suppress certain political viewpoints.