TIME Magazine Readers Say Anonymous Hacktivists Should Get Most Influential Award (MAYBE)

TIME Magazine says its reader polling is pointing to the hacktivist group Anonymous for its most influential of the year status. Others say the reader poll was, well, hacked. It would be a funny practical joke. But there’s a serious angle here, too. Check out the video above. And we’d love to hear your thoughts. Especially if you wear an Anonymous mask (see video) while doing it.

TIME Magazine announced today that — in a reader poll — readers have named the hacktivist group Anonymous as most deserving of the title “most influential.” That is probably a correct statement in a lot of categories. Still, many in tech wonder whether the vote itself wasn’t hacked.

That’s not outside the realm of possibility — who better to do that than those who love hacking — but I’m not weighing in on that yet.

I’m contacting, you guessed it, one of the guys in that group. It deserves a comment. Still a free country, last I checked.

My view: If the vote were here in Silicon Valley or any other tech area, I’d believe it 100 percent. But do folks outside the geek community even know these guys? TIME isn’t just read in the tech-savvy coastal cities and metro areas with lots of geeks from around the U.S. and across the globe. I mean, a study came out yesterday that said most humans have never even heard of a tablet computer aside from the Apple iPad. I can name 12. You can likely name more.

Here’s a video story — quite entertaining — with the update.

What do you think?
Developing. Video above well worth watching.

The above piece is news commentary — the equivalent of an OpEd — and reflects the views of its author and not those of aNewDomain.net in total or our property in general.

2 Comments

  • Non-techies do know of Anonymous, but it’s through the main stream media. Much of the MSM has been unfair to Anonymous, categorizing them as misled youth. I don’t think most of the American population understands Anonymous or their actions.

  • I think they’re influential in raising awareness for online security, though Sony still hasn’t figured out security just yet. :|

    -RAP, II