09-F9-11-02-9D-74-E3-5B-D8-41-56-C5-63-56-88-C0

This is a historic moment for Web 2.0, with screenshots as proof! The media has called it: the DIGG and password gate incident, the largest online riot in history.

It's a set of crucial hexadecimal codes: 09-F9-11-02-9D-74-E3-5B-D8-41-56-C5-63-56-88-C0. I'd rather call it "freedom code."

(From Digg’s Blog)

Today was an insane day. And as the founder of Digg, I just wanted to post my thoughts...

In building and shaping the site, I’ve always tried to stay as hands-on as possible. We’ve always given site moderation (digging/burying) power to the community. Occasionally we step in to remove stories that violate our terms of use (e.g., linking to pornography, illegal downloads, racial hate sites, etc.). So today was a difficult day for us. We had to decide whether to remove stories containing a single code based on a cease and desist declaration. We had to make a call, and in our desire to avoid a scenario where Digg would be interrupted or shut down, we decided to comply and remove the stories with the code.

But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you’ve made it clear. You’d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be.

If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying.

Digg on,

Kevin