Buzz Watch: Digg Founder Kevin Rose Lets Users Win in UGC Test Case

Authored by Jay Baage on May 3, 2007 - 9:36am.

Digg, the popular site where users determine the placement of new stories by voting, was recently hit with a user revolt. On Wednesday Digg founder Kevin Rose found himself in the center of what some are calling a test case for the power of user-generated content on social networking sites.

The controversy started after Digg deleted a post that linked to a decryption key for HD DVDs. The company was asked to remove a link to an article purporting to offer a way around the encoding protection of the new format. After Digg managers complied with the request, the Digg community flooded the site with hundreds of new posts to replace it and thousands of comments criticizing the move.

Here is where it gets interesting from a management perspective: A site like Digg is only as strong as its userbase, so it can't afford a revolt. But it can't afford to be sued into oblivion either. Whereas Youtube and Chad Hurley choose the strategy to please the major media companies that ask for their content to be removed from YouTube, Kevin Rose choose to go with the users instead.

"You've made it clear," wrote Rose in his blog. "You'd rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won't delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be. If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying."

Joakim Baage

Related Link:
Digg Users Revolt Over Deleted Posts of HD DVD Security Hack