Christian Selig, Founder of Reddit iOS App Apollo, Teams Up With The Internet's Original Troublemakers, Kevin Rose & Alexis Ohanian, To Advise On Digg's Mobile and Developer Strategy

21.05.25 16:09 Uhr

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LOS ANGELES, May 21, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Digg made a new friend. He's very good at apps. Christian Selig, the developer behind the now-defunct and deeply mourned Apollo app for Reddit, is joining Digg as an advisor, marking a major step in the platform's reinvention alongside internet pioneers Kevin Rose (yes, that Kevin, the guy who originally launched a raccoon Digg from his apartment), and Alexis Ohanian (yep, that Alexis, Co-founder of Reddit and, for a while, Kevin's internet arch-nemesis). Digg, the news aggregation platform once billed as the internet's homepage, is getting a reboot and the new leadership team is looking to bring back the good vibes of the old internet.

Digg logo

Digg is saying it loud and clear: community, builders, and moderators, we're here for you and we want to do the right thing. The public beta launches in the coming weeks.

In 2023, Selig famously posted the bombshell: "Had a call with Reddit to discuss pricing. Bad news for third-party apps, their announced pricing is close to Twitter's pricing, and Apollo would have to pay Reddit $20 million per year to keep running as-is." Apollo, the app millions actually loved using, was priced out of existence.

Rose recently said in an off-the-record interview: "Yeah, it was a total [redacted]-show. What in the flying [redacted] was Reddit thinking? These folks, the unpaid labor force, are the lifeblood of their community, they should always be the priority. This is off-the-record, right?"

Digg CEO Justin Mezzell chimes in: "We're excited to have Selig bring that same craft and community-first thinking to Digg, helping us build something that feels good to use and even better to be a part of." When pressed on the Apollo/Reddit drama, Mezzell said in a publicly recorded interview: "I simply won't comment on that. We're charting our own course here at Digg. But if I did comment, I would probably say '[redact] me sideways, what a fumble.' But that would only be if I did say something publicly."

In March 2025, Rose and Ohanian announced they were teaming up to bring Digg back into the spotlight. The goal: make the internet fun again, or at the very least, less exhausting. A month later, Digg launched an early-access community called Groundbreakers, giving members first dibs on usernames, early influence on product development, and a peek behind the curtain as Digg rebuilds from the feed up. Joining Groundbreakers cost a one-time $5 fee, not for exclusivity, but as a quick humanity check. Proceeds went to nonprofits chosen by the community itself, including The Nature Conservancy, Thorn, and Code.org. The cover charge kept the bots out and proved the company does, in fact, give a damn.

Christian Selig is one of the first to join Digg's small group of advisors. Also announced last week on Diggnation, Jaci Hays has joined as an advisor. More names are on the way. Digg's Board of Directors includes Justin Mezzell (CEO), Kevin Rose (Founder/Chairman of Digg and Partner, True Ventures), Alexis Ohanian (Founder, Seven Seven Six), and Tony Conrad (Partner, True Ventures). Strong internet energy, well-contained.

ABOUT DIGG
Digg, the revolutionary social news platform founded in 2004, helped define the early internet by introducing user-powered content curation through upvotes and community-driven discussion. At its peak, Digg attracted tens of millions of users and shaped the Web 2.0 era. In 2025, Digg relaunched, backed by OG founder Kevin Rose and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, with CEO Justin Mezzell at the helm. The revived platform aims to use the very best of technology, including AI, to bring humanity back to the internet by fostering the spirit of discovery and genuine community that made the early web a fun and exciting place to be.

Media Contacts:
Chelsey Northern / The Untold
cn@wearetheuntold.com

Alana Battaglia / The Untold
ab@wearetheuntold.com

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SOURCE Digg