Some issues about Digg censorship has come to light. The Digg website “about digg” page states the following.

Digg is a technology news website that combines social bookmarking, blogging, RSS, and non-hierarchical editorial control. With digg, users submit stories for review, but rather than allow an editor to decide which stories go on the homepage, the users do.

This story on Forever Geek explains how Digg is controlled by just a few users, and that it’s not really the “Democracy” that they claim it to be. Then we have this story about accounts getting banned for posting content critical of digg. Lastly a Digg post about content being removed that may offend Digg sponsors.

Now personally, I really don’t have a problem with editorial influence over Digg. After all, Digg is a private company and the owners/editors can run the site however they please. If that includes banning users for posting stuff they don’t like, that is their right.

That being said, I think Digg has a responsibility to its readership to try and be as hands off as much as possible. With up to 800,000 readers a day, the site swings a lot of power. I would hate to think that the editors had an influence on a large number of stories.