GoKawiilDigg once described itself as “the homepage of the internet,” but a poorly-received redesign in 2010 saw many of its users migrate instead to Reddit, and it was sold for parts within two years.
An attempted reboot this year didn’t last long, failing for a spectacularly ironic reason, but the platform is back for a third attempt – and you can get early access today …
A quick recap
Digg was essentially a social news site. Both editors and users could post links, and users would then upvote them (“digg”) or downvote them (“bury”). A key feature was that other sites could embed those digg buttons, allowing users to vote on links even without visiting the site itself.
The site was essentially killed by a combination of an unpopular update, widespread manipulation, and the growing popularity of Facebook – whose Like and Share buttons proved more popular.
There things remained until last year, when Digg founder Kevin Rose joined forces with Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian to bring it back from the dead.
The first failed revival
The revived series went into closed beta in late 2025 before launching to the public at the start of this year. The USP, said the company, would be the steps it was taking to ensure it wasn’t taken over by bots.
The new Digg will apply signals of trust to pick up on patterns of authentic participation. They will bundle multiple verification cues and technologies together to fight AI-driven spam, and may even require proof of product ownership before users can join and post in certain communities.
Less than two months later, it shut down after … being taken over by bots.
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