With the threat of a US ban still hanging over TikTok, and increasingly polarised opinions about X and Facebook, the last couple of years has seen several rival platforms vying for attention from digital-first audiences and creators.
Against this backdrop, March 2025 has seen social media pioneers Kevin Rose and Alexis Ohanian throw their hats in the ring by acquiring Digg. Once competitors, with Rose the founder of Digg and Ohanian the founder of Reddit, the duo have teamed up to revive the platform with a vision “to restore the spirit of discovery and community that made the early web a fun and exciting place to be”.
At a time when community discourse has grown increasingly combative, cluttered, and bogged down by misinformation, spam, Digg 2.0 plans to become “an online destination with humanity and connection at its core”.
Digg launched in 2004 with an innovative crowdsourced voting system. Users could “digg” (upvote) or “bury” (downvote) content, shaping what trended online. At its peak, Digg attracted 40m monthly unique visitors. In 2012, Rose sold Digg to Betaworks, while its most valuable assets, including its patents, were acquired by LinkedIn.
“At various times I had been approached to repurchase Digg; it never felt right. The technologies to solve our biggest pain points didn’t exist,” said Rose, who will serve as the new Digg’s Board Chair, investor, and key advisor. “Just recently we’ve hit an inflection point where AI can become a helpful co-pilot to users and moderators, not replacing human conversation, but augmenting it, allowing users to dig deeper, while at the same time removing a lot of the repetitive burden for community moderators”.
Ohanian added: “Online communities thrive when there’s a balance between technology and human judgment. We’re bringing Digg back to ensure that balance exists. AI should handle the grunt work in the background while humans focus on what they do best: building real connections. No one dreams of spending their day playing content police – they want to create, connect, and build thriving communities.”
Backed by True Ventures (Fitbit, Peloton, Ring, BlueSky, Blue Bottle Coffee), where Rose is a partner, and Seven Seven Six (Stoke Space, Mr. Beast Industries, Angel City FC, and Riverside), founded by Ohanian, Digg is primed to set itself apart from other platforms by focusing on AI innovations designed to enhance the user experience and build a human-centered alternative.
Justin Mezzell, a longtime collaborator of Rose’s and a seasoned product design leader, will take the helm as CEO. With more than 15 years of experience in product design across SaaS, mobile, media, and agency sectors, Mezzell has worked with major technology brands including Google, Facebook, Twitter, and PayPal.
Picture shows Kevin Rose and Alexis Ohanian, photo credit Julien Lasseur
