Conservative Group Accused of Censoring Stories on Digg

August 6, 2010 By Ryan Fleming

A group called the Digg Patriots are being accused of censoring as much as 90-percent of articles from liberal-leaning websites, and frequently “burying” stories within hours.

An undercover investigation by the website AlterNet claims to have uncovered a conservative group’s organized campaign to censor Digg, the world’s largest social media organization. The coordinated censorship is responsible for “burying” several thousand articles within three to four hours of being posted.

Digg.com exists as a social site, where users can submit media stories to share with other users. Many have claimed that it is a form of digital media democracy, where people choose the stories and news worth reporting, then pass it on to their peers who vote whether or not it is worth the read. When a story receives enough “diggs”, it will reach the front page, which can then lead to thousands of new page hits for the website that posted the article. Digg is responsible for roughly 25 million page views per month, and front-page articles can frequently overwhelm websites and cause them to shut down- something known as the “digg effect”. Currently, Digg is the 50th most visted website in the US, and among the top 120 in the world.

In theory, the most interesting stories rise to the top, while the less popular stories tend to get buried. There is, however, a tactic called “gaming”, where groups coordinate their efforts to bury or digg stories. The act of gaming is against Digg’s terms of service, but proving it can be extremely difficult.

For over a year, AlterNet has been investigating one such group involved with gaming, the “Digg Patriots,” an extremely right-leaning conservative group that targets anything they see as being liberal, progressive, in support of the Democratic party, or any of a dozen other topics that include Obama, homosexuality, and abortion rights. The list is very, very long. The group also has connection to social networks Facebook, Twitter, and more. It is hard to estimate how many people belong to the group, as several of the listed members on the Digg Patriots Yahoo Group page, the site they use to keep in contact, are inactive or may be duplicate accounts for users in case one account is banned. Since the original posting of the investigation, the group page has disappeared from Yahoo Groups. The final comment on the page before it was deleted read “WE’VE BEEN EXPOSED!!!!!”

Although the bulk of the group’s censorship seems to be directed towards political posts, it is in no way limited to just that. The report claims that the Digg Patriots frequently attack articles based on education, homophobia, racism, wealth disparity, green energy, and anything critical of conservative groups such as the Tea Party, as well as conservative commentators like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. The group also frequently buries stories from individual users that they dislike, who may have posted topics as innocuous as “Celtics take Lead in NBA Finals” which can be buried into obscurity within hours.

The article also highlights another tactic of the Digg Patriots: to target individual users and try to have them banned. One way to do this is to deliberately enrage users and try to bait them into saying something that could violate the terms of service. The investigation cites several examples, including the use of lying to administrators — in one instance a man lied and claimed to be African-American in order to claim that his target had said something that offended him as an African-American.

Although this form of censorship network is prohibited by Digg, who claim to be looking into it, there is currently very little that can be done about it. Many of the Digg Patriots have multiple accounts, and when one is banned, they simply switch to another. If the user receives a more severe ban that locks out the IP, the Digg Patriots have several methods to hide an IP address that they pass on to their users. A new version of Digg is on the way, and one of the changes will be the removal of the “bury” button, to be replaced with a “report” button, which should help alleviate this type of planned attacks on particular posts.

Showing 10 comments

deadlyramon at 4:09am 8th August 2010 To me, these right wing censors are brown-shirts. They behave with sociopathic glee and under a veil of Christianity demonstrate the worst form of Nietzsche's 'will to power.' Reality has no bearing on their beliefs, and they feel mandated by God to crush with impunity anyone who contradicts them. They are a threat to national security.
1. Cbarcus at 10:46am 8th August 2010 I agree that for these people reason takes a back seat to belief and fear, but if the establishment's response is with tyranny, will that not just exasperate the communication problem? Try to put yourself in their position- how would you like to be treated if you had their concerns? There are major problems at both the national and global levels that have yet to be clearly articulated to the masses. We are in a major transition in the development of a globally sustainable culture. This involves significant alterations in our current adaptations for unchecked growth in population and economic production. The manic illusion of full employment and excessive wealth accumulation (hoarding) must be dispelled. For most members of our Super-tribe, the current situation is incomprehensible. Most of what everyone believes they know is true is false.
Cbarcus at 11:51am 7th August 2010 If individuals are gaming the system (violating the terms of service), it would seem that they feel that they are at war. The current cultural division in the US has the look of a religious war. These conflicts can be very destructive, and I hope that the participants would find the intellectual courage and emotional maturity to limit such behavior. The rise of science in the past few hundred years has led to the greatest cultural shift in history, but we are still in transition. This new approach emphasizes the understandability of nature through rigorous testing of empirically-based theory. It demands that it's followers examine their most deeply held convictions and hold them under blinding scrutiny. An Earth-centered universe, creation, and God have all fallen to the sharp edge of Occam's Razor. The ideas that have replaced these antiquated memes have shown themselves to be far more powerful: a 14 billion year old expanding universe of billions of galaxies containing billions of stars, a complicated bit of self-replicating chemistry that came about under favorable conditions which we collectively refer to as Evolution, and finally, a budding psychology based upon the dual-hemispheric structure of the human brain. The powers of our combined intellect know no bounds if we can overcome our instincts to defend the indefensible, to obscure and avoid Truth, and to live beyond our collective means. Mental health is a group concern, and if individuals are insecure in their social function, if they fail to acquire the necessities, their commitment to the social contract may be in jeopardy, and down that path lies disaggregation and darkness.
1stkorean at 9:31am 7th August 2010 Since digg allows altering/changeing a story, why not always have the original follow the altered/changed one in quotes? Readers could then see the original and what has been altered/changed/added...problem solved.
@alapoet at 9:03am 7th August 2010 "JOe," did you even bother to read the article on AlterNet? There's PLENTY of proof. Screen shots, emails, everything. Ignorance doesn't look good on you.
jack at 8:39am 7th August 2010 yeah something similar happened on shoutwire several years back. Honestly this has probably been going on a long time.
jerry at 8:36am 7th August 2010 Doesn't surprise me .
Noline at 8:32am 7th August 2010 what a load of BS. Even if this is true it's also an admission that Digg buries more conservative stories by omission by the admission that it's left leaning. Also it means that Diggs financial troubles have more to do with not catering to their largest audience, "hacked off Americans that overwhelmingly lean right." Perhaps if Digg doesn't wise up they will also go the way of Newsweek.
JOe at 8:20am 7th August 2010 Lots of accusations and no proof.
jav1231 at 5:35am 7th August 2010 Given the fact that left-leaning posters have done this for ages on Digg and other cites, the shoe would seem to be on the other foot. Digg has long been in control of the few and in it's early days the front page was a domain for only a few.