It’s Official (and Hacked): 4chan Founder Sweeps Time’s Top 100 List

The Internet has different rules. The folks at Time just learned about it in a very amusing way, as their third annual poll for the world’s most influential person was topped by moot A.K.A. Christopher Poole, founder of the legendary memebreeding forum 4chan.

Not Barack Obama, not Oprah Winfrey, not Pope Benedict XVI, but moot. He received 16,794,368 votes and an average influence rating of 90 (out of a possible 100).

Epic win. But the entire list looks very odd, influence-wise. Does it make sense at all? Not if you’ve been following closely.

One can easily argue that 4chan is one of the most influential sites on the Internet; in the world of odd memes, obscure anime images and bizarre photoshops – and these make a very large and important portion of the entity we refer to as “the Internet” – moot is king.

However, the results of the vote have nothing to do with influence. If you think that this is the result of a fair vote, think again. The entire first 21 results, as noted days ago, are the result of an elaborate hack done by 4chan users.

It’s surprising, thus, that Time pretends that everything is alright. From their article about the results:

“Moot denies knowing about any concerted plan by his followers to influence the poll, though TIME.com’s technical team did detect and extinguish several attempts to hack the vote.“

Erm, extinguish? The vote is obviously hacked. Time’s attempts to fix the damage came too late, and the 4chan folks managed to put the encrypted message back into order (if you read the first letters of the first 21 names on the list, the message reads “Marblecake also the game”).

Thus, the entire list stands only as a monument to how such an admired institution – Time’s 100 list – can be turned upside down by a bunch of hackers. Hey folks, while you’re at it, can we have Twitter topping the Forbes 500? Thanks a bunch, drinks are on me.

Tags: 4chan, influence, Moot, time

Source: Mashable