The problem with social bookmarking? Society.

Sunday, May 6th, 2007

Digg is only as good as its members. While the great HD DVD controversy of 2007 was unfolding on digg.com, something more disturbing, more insipid occurred. Six thousand sixty five digg members raised their hands to be counted as some of the most gullible, ignorant and just plain stupid people in existence.

Over 6000 Digg members dugg an obviously false story. The story in question describes how an 11-year-old girl shot and killed two illegal immigrants who had broken into her home. The problem is that the story just isn’t true. It is a blatant attempt to incite a gut reaction against illegal immigration and gun control.

I was under the impression that digg users were internet savvy- well, at least savvy enough not to believe everything they read on the internet. I finally understand why the Nigerian 419 scammers are still in business.

One would think the title of the story would be enough to discourage diggs.

Yes, it says “illegle”instead of”illegal.”

If you actually read the story you’d notice the source (or the lack of a source).

Email? That means it was most likely forwarded by someone’s uncle.

There are more signs this story is fake but the most important one is that there is no time or place associated with the story. There is also no evidence of this story on Lexis/Nexis.

This isn’t about politics. This is about how we consume the news. The fact that so many people blindly accept a story as true is frightening. Just as these people voted on digg they could just as well vote in a presidential election. I hope these 6065 people are under 18 years old.

This isn’t the only example challenging the intelligence of the average digg user. Remember when wired.com bought half the diggs needed to get a fake story to the front page? Digg users provided the other half. Remember when digg users illustrated that they’re dumber than gold fish?

These examples prove that the problem with digg isn’t digg itself and it’s not Kevin Rose. It’s you.
Digg intelligently.

Update: Snopes has categorized the illegal aliens versus 11-year-old story as false.

Share This