The popular link-sharing website Digg is investigating claims that a group of the site's "influential conservative" members are systematically downgrading thousands of stories deemed to be "liberal".
Online magazine AlterNet claimed to have uncovered a group of Digg members – dubbed "Digg Patriots" – who have "censored hundreds of users, dozens of websites, and thousands of stories" from the site. Alternet alleged that the Digg Patriots, thought to number nearly 100 members, are "able to bury over 90% of articles by certain users and websites submitted within 1-3 hours".
Kevin Rose, founder of Digg, said via Twitter: "We're looking into this."
The six-year-old social bookmarking website ranks submitted web content by the number of times they are ranked up or down. Popular items, those receiving the most "Diggs" and least attempts to "Bury", are voted onto the Digg homepage, and can generate significant amounts of traffic for external websites.
AlterNet claimed the group of Digg Patriots, whose political affiliations are described as "conservative", work to "censor" the prominence of articles "even slightly critical of the GOP/Tea Party/FoxNews/corporations".
A posting said by AlterNet to be by the alleged founder of the Digg Patriots, "phoenixtx", reads:
The more liberal stories that were buried the better chance conservative stories have to get to the front page. I'll continue to bury their submissions until they change their ways and become conservatives.
AlterNet also claimed "dozens of duplicate or previously banned" Digg users have set up alternate accounts.
Digg, currently undergoing a transition to a new website, may be free from the coercion of groups of users when it launches its next version, a preliminary analysis by AlterNet is said to have shown.
Rightardia has noted attempts to bury or discredit Usenet posts by Usenet avatars Patriot games, Eddie Haskell and Soft Sofa. These people continually counter-post Rightardia articles with cut and paste Spam.
These 'Digg Patriots" have also attempted to forge Rightardia posts to suggest we are posting incendiary and pornographic material or directing readers to pornographic web sites. It is clear these people don't understand the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
These 'Digg Patriots' are fascists, not patriots.
A tool used by the GOP
"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will
eventually come to believe it."
- Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels
ALSO SEE
"Massive Censorship Of Digg Uncovered" by oleoleolson, AlterNet 8/5/2010
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