Some of you may recall the huge scandal over at Digg a few weeks ago. Well, history nearly repeated itself today when a story on the same topic broke today: hackers cracked a new AACS processing key (used to encrypt DRM). One can only assume the people behind AACS became angry and sent cease and desist orders to Digg.
Nevertheless, the story hit the front page of Digg and people were anxiously watching what would happen. Last time, Kevin Rose (founder of Digg) publicly declared Digg would no longer bow to external forces on censoring that topic. Well, the story disappeared from the front page without explanation despite having a large number of Diggs.
People noticed.
Users began talking about spamming the site about the news again, and duplicate stories were submitted for a short period of time. Searching for the processing key yielded no results, and people were getting a little upset. But in a surprising turn of events (and possibly the first time in Digg’s history), the story re-appeared on the front page within minutes.
Perhaps Digg management are evaluating the C&D letter and realizing that they have no merit (i.e., you can’t claim copyright on a number?). If I had to guess, an admin censored the post upon seeing a C&D letter, only to be corrected by someone higher up in management that realized that wasn’t a good idea. Either way, it seems Digg learned its lesson.
posts disappear from the front page within an hour or two sometimes though. probably faster at that time. and there’d be a bigger uproar if the ranking was being rigged (i know it is know, you know what i mean)