Time Magazine created a list of 25 people whom it believes are the “most influential” users on the internet.
The unranked list released Tuesday includes musicians, politicians, individual and group activists, influencers and other celebrity personalities who have garnered large followings on social media, changed the way people use certain platforms and drove the world’s news. (RELATED: TIME Magazine Calls Trump Campaign ‘Kind Of A Perpetual Outrage Machine’)
Time writers chose the following:
- Lil Nas X (sings “Old Town Road”)
- New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez
- President Donald Trump
- BTS (South Korean boy band extraordinaire)
- Rahaf Mohammed (Saudi Arabian runaway and feminist)
- Ariana Grande (sings “thank u, next”)
- The School Strikers (the European students who skip school on Fridays to protest climate change)
- Liza Koshy (internet comedian)
- Brian Kolfage (started a GoFundMe to help build Trump’s wall)
- James Charles (beauty vlogger)
- Meghan Markle and Prince Harry
- Germán Garmendia (Spanish YouTuber)
- Cardi B (rapper)
- Chris Godfrey (creator of the “World Record Egg“)
- Carlos Maza (Vox journalist and vlogger)
- Zhang Dayi (Chinese influencer)
- JoJo Siwa (famous teenage YouTube star from Nebraska)
- Ben Shapiro (editor-in-chief of The Daily Wire and podcast host)
- DrLupo (aka Benjamin Lupo, most followed user on Twitch)
- Emma Chamberlain (vlogger)
- Hong Kong Protesters
- Yashar Ali (New York Magazine and Huffington Post contributor)
- Jameela Jamil (actress and body positivity activist)
- Ady Barkan (Medicare for All activist)
- Jada Pinkett Smith (Will Smith’s wife and talk show host)
Ocasio-Cortez and Trump appear side-by-side on the list. Time highlights Ocasio-Cortez’s large social media presence and “best practices,” saying her “seniority” online is “unparalleled.”
“Ocasio-Cortez has also expertly harnessed viral tropes to draw attention to subcommittee hearings and granular policy debates that have typically been relegated to the confines of C-Span: an Instagram video of questions she asked at a hearing about cannabis in February has amassed over three million views,” wrote Time congressional correspondent Alana Abramson.
WATCH:
Trump made the list because of his “massive online megaphone,” as Time describes it, noting that he sent out a personal record of 84 tweets in one day on May 1. (RELATED: Pete Buttigieg Featured On Time Magazine Cover — Campaign Described As ‘Unlikely’ In Subtitle)
“Trump’s tweets initiate a feedback loop of cable news segments, Google search results and online news stories, giving his short missives longer legs and allowing his online influence to dwarf that of his political rival,” wrote Time senior White House correspondent Brian Bennett.
The 25-person list also gave a shoutout to Kolfage, a triple amputee who raised $25 million to fund Trump’s wall through a GoFundMe page; Shapiro, a favorite among millennial conservatives who has amassed millions of followers on social media; and Yashar Ali, who “routinely uses his platform … to break news.”
Trump and pop singer Grande are the only two names who also appear on the top 25 Instagram and Twitter lists based on followings.
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