In 2009 hackers from 4chan rigged Time's influence poll to spell a joke
When Time let readers vote in 2009, the winner was Christopher Poole, founder of the message board 4chan, with more than 16.7 million votes. Organised pranksters had gamed the tally so that the initials of the top 21 names spelled out a hidden message. The magazine's editors, not the public, still choose the real list.
The Time 100 first appeared in 1999, born from a debate among American academics, politicians and journalists, and has become a heavily publicised yearly event with a gala in Manhattan. Editors make the final picks, drawing nominations from past honorees and the magazine's writers around the world. Only one slot, the winner of a readers' poll held a few days before publication, is decided by the public. Like Person of the Year, inclusion recognises world-changing impact whatever its consequences.
Editors have tried repeatedly to define what they are measuring. In 2007 managing editor Richard Stengel said the aim was influence, not fame or raw power, pointing to figures such as Monty Jones, a Sierra Leonean scientist who bred a rice strain for African farming. In 2014 Nancy Gibbs put it more pithily: power is a fist, influence a fingertip. That year's list included 41 women, the most in its history.
The reader vote has proved easy to hijack. In 2009 Time said its technical staff had caught and stopped several attempts to hack the poll, but weeks before voting closed it became clear that manipulation had shaped the results, and the initials of the leaders formed the phrase marblecake also the game. By 2021 the readers' poll drew nearly 1.8 million votes, with Britney Spears on top.
Omissions cause as much fuss as inclusions. Leaving out Tony Blair in 2004 drew complaints; editor-at-large Michael Elliott replied that no Western European leader was influential enough at that moment. Dropping George W. Bush in 2007 angered conservatives, and deputy managing editor Adi Ignatius argued Bush had squandered the influence built into the presidency. Oprah Winfrey appeared on every list from 2004 until a break in 2012, and in 2018 Millie Bobby Brown, then 14, became the youngest person ever named. Since 2019 a companion list, Time 100 Next, has tracked rising stars.
Source: Time 100
