Is Digg Sexist?

Is Digg Sexist? That is the question I've been asking myself ever since I started blogging about Women's Rights. And honestly - from what I've seen so far, the answer is yes.

For those who are not entrenched in the social media world, Digg.com is a social news sharing site where users submit content (video, articles, websites) and then vote up or down that content up based on interest. The site is known for its incredible ability to drive thousands of hits of traffic and help content go viral within the blogosphere. The site boasts a "democratic" nature as anyone can submit content. However, the stories that often voted up by the Digg community are based on a few key factors such as:

1. Who submitted it

2. When it was submitted

3. What the content is

The third requirement is the most important - content is king on Digg. But lately there has been a discussion about whether or not the content biases on the site should go unregulated - particularly when it comes to the sexist, misogynistic nature of comments left under stories that have anything remotely to do with feminism or women in general. (See this horrendous example here).

Not surprisingly, given my content, I have felt the wrath of the boys club on Digg.com. This week my piece, "Top Ten Moments of Feminism in 2008" accrued a mere 180 Diggs in a two-day period. As I watched the story climb, I also watched the commentators that Digg is notorious for come out and speak their minds:

Probablysucks: Feminism was never cool.

Cyrusuncc: 11. Making a sammich 12. Ironing my shirt 13. Cooking/Cleaning

alanr19: Feminism. lol. Aww that's precious. Now get me a beer, and while you're at it get your milkers out..

Mikbunn: This list just negated all progress women have made in the past year

Once I saw these comments get started, I immediately jumped into the thread and tried to balance out the commentary - only to get my remarks quickly buried. It was as if the boys club not only felt threatened by a female playing their social media sandbox, but wanted to do everything in their power to scare me away.

As the piece started to garner enough votes to make the story "Popular" - which usually requires about 150 votes or more - I noticed that users on Digg were simultaneously burying the article. As a result, while I did acquire a significant amount of votes, my piece never made the "Popular" page due to those who were burying the article, instead of voting it up. This is a simple explanation for the complicated Digg algorithm that gives certain votes more weight (active accounts) over others (less active accounts) - which in the end decides which story makes it to the top of any category.

In order to try and teach these boys a small lesson - I tried to pull what I'd like to call the "Motrin Moms" effect on them. I notified my fellow female bloggers and those in the progressive community about the thread and asked them join the thread and add positive comments. This effort helped generate more votes, push the article ahead, balance out the comment thread and effectively bury the sexist remarks. At the end of the day, I felt that in a small way, I had stopped misogyny in its tracks.

I am not alone in trying to speak out about the problematic users on Digg who try to intimidate, offend and thwart certain issues or ideas related to women from percolating to the top of the social news site. A few weeks ago, Saabira Chaudhuri remarked on her experience after she published the piece the "Most Influential Women in Web 2.0." She said that "the comments it elicited on Digg were unprecedented." In writing about the offensive comments, however, she got the attention of Digg's founder, Kevin Rose, who emailed her after she posted about it to say that his team was in the process of deleting any comments on this article that violate the site's terms of use.

It was her brave action that inspired my efforts this week and I hope that this experience can serve as an example to those who feel threatened as women in the online space, but want to do something to change it.

Editorial note: A summary of this experience is posted here: Digg Community Responds to Change.org CR Efforts