Digg is laying off staff, citing a "brutal reality" in the digital environment and a surge in artificial intelligence-driven bot activity. CEO Justin Mezzell announced the downsizing, stating the company failed to find product-market fit against established social media platforms.
The platform experienced an "unprecedented" influx of sophisticated AI agents and automated accounts, which undermined its voting and engagement systems. Mezzell explained, "When you can't trust that the votes, the comments, and the engagement you're seeing are real, you've lost the foundation a community platform is built on."
Digg founder Kevin Rose, who previously teamed up with Alexis Ohanian on the revival, will return full-time in April to lead the platform's rebuilding efforts. "We're not giving up. Digg isn't going away," Mezzell added.