Digg Opens Public Beta For Reddit Alternative

Digg, one of the early internet’s most recognizable community sites, has officially opened the public beta of its long-anticipated reboot, positioning itself once again as a competitor to Reddit. The relaunch marks a significant step in the platform’s revival under the ownership of original founder Kevin Rose and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.

The new Digg launches with both a website and mobile app, offering a familiar community-driven format where users can browse topic-based feeds, post content, comment, and upvote submissions using the platform’s signature “digg” action. While the structure closely resembles Reddit’s model, Digg’s leadership is framing the relaunch as an opportunity to rethink how online communities function in an era increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence.

Digg’s return follows a complicated history. Once valued at $175 million in 2008, the original site lost momentum to Reddit and was broken up in 2012. Since then, Reddit has grown into a public company with multiple revenue streams, including content licensing deals tied to AI training. Rose and Ohanian believe those same AI developments now create space for Digg to reemerge with a different approach.

A central focus of the reboot is trust and identity. Rather than relying on traditional verification badges or strict identity checks, Digg plans to experiment with alternative methods. “We obviously don’t want to force everyone down some kind of crazy KYC process,” Rose said, adding that the company instead wants to collect “little signals of trust along the way and bundle them all together into something that’s meaningful.” These signals could include cryptographic verification tools, proof of product ownership for certain communities, or location-based confirmations tied to real-world events.