The list also includes the likes of BTS, Donald Trump and the students of the Parkland, Florida shooting massacre.
- Jun 29, 2018
AceShowbiz - Rihanna, Kanye West, and his sister-in-law Kylie Jenner have been named among Time magazine's 25 Most Influential People on the Internet.
South Korean boyband Bnagtan Boys a.k.a. BTS, actress Busy Philipps, U.S. President Donald Trump, and the students of the Parkland, Florida shooting massacre, who have been fighting for gun control reform, also make the cut for the fourth annual unranked list, devised by evaluating each contender's global impact on social media and their ability to drive news.
Rihanna was recognised for the hugely successful launches of her cosmetics collection, Fenty Beauty, and her lingerie line, Savage x Fenty, while she also made waves in March after causing the stock market value of Snapchat's parent company, Snap. Inc, to drop by $800 million (£612 million). The stunning loss came after the pop superstar slammed platform bosses for running an ad for a new Would You Rather? game, which poked fun at the singer's 2009 assault at the hands of her then-boyfriend Chris Brown, asking users if they would "rather slap Rihanna or punch Chris Brown".
Snapchat officials quickly removed the promo and apologised, claiming it was published in error, but the statement was too little, too late for Rihanna, who promptly dumped the social media app and urged her fans to do the same.
She was the second famous face to cause Snap Inc.'s value to plummet, weeks after Kylie Jenner admitted she was no longer using the platform following an unpopular tech update, which many complained made it less user-friendly.
The 20-year-old's admission wiped $1.3 billion off the company's market valuation back in February.
Kylie's other influential social media moves include dethroning Beyonce and her 2017 pregnancy announcement for the most-liked photo on Instagram, after revealing the name of her baby daughter Stormi online in February, and using the Internet to drum up excitement for her Kylie Cosmetics firm, which continues to grow from strength-to-strength.
Conversely, her sister Kim Kardashian's husband Kanye is known for using his Twitter page for less carefully curated posts, often stirring controversy for airing his strong opinions, most recently expressing his support for Trump, and defending comments he made about slavery being a "choice" for many African-Americans.
"No matter what, his online persona - with 28 million followers - keeps him squarely in the public eye," Time's Eliza Berman notes.
