FOR all the hype and praise lavished over user-generated content, Web 2.0 has a dark side as well. Without any form of control, what’s to prevent e-democracy from degenerating into the online version of mob rule?
That’s what the popular Web 2.0 site Digg is now struggling to come to terms with in the face of a user revolt.
Here’s an excerpt from the San Francisco Chronicle article:
One of the central tenets of the Web 2.0 movement — that members of an online community should police themselves — came under scrutiny this week when a reader-edited news site deleted information helpful for bootlegging DVDs.
The news site, Digg.com, removed a number of links to stories its users had posted that detailed a secret computer code that allows movies and television shows on high-definition DVDs to be copied. It took the action after an entertainment industry trade group complained.
The site’s readers, who collectively pick and choose which stories are displayed most prominently on Digg, rebelled against the perceived censorship by repeatedly reposting the code in question.
May 5th, 2007 at 11:51 pm
[...] @play : Digg this: User revolt vs Web 2.0 site [...]