Kanye West’s proven mastery of the tweeted language has landed him atop TIME’s second annual list of the "most influential people on the Internet," placing above high-rankings from J.K. Rowling and the creators of the endlessly compelling "Damn Daniel" meme magic. Elsewhere on the publication’s list of 30 digital tastemakers, prominent #BlackLivesMatter activists and hella popular YouTube gamerPewDiePie are touted for their own inventive use of the seemingly endless amount of social media tools readily available to those willing to master them.
"The artist and entrepreneur has perfect the art of the Twitter spree," Nolan Feeney writes of Kanye’s No. 1 placement, a pretty obvious fact that now appears to be influencing the entire Kardashian empire in some remarkable ways. In fact, Twitter is a prominent force throughout TIME’s roundup of influencers. Snapchat and Pinterest are also redefining the media landscape, with recent king of snaps DJ Khaled and Pinterest superstar Joy Cho also landing in the top ten.
Of course, as with any list of this stature, there's indeed a handful of controversial choices in the mix, namely Donald Trump. Noting that Trump is changing how political candidates engage with various social media channels "for better and for worse," Daniel D’Addario points to the leading Republican candidate’s lengthy (and self-instigated) feud with Megyn Kelly as an example of how Trump somehow turns his outright grotesqueness into a (sadly viable) career platform.
Peep the top 10 below and see TIME's full list of 30 right here.
- Kanye West
- Joy Cho
- James Corden
- Laci Green
- Josh Holz and Daniel Lara
- DJ Khaled
- Johnetta Elzie and DeRay Mckesson
- J.K. Rowling
- PewDiePie
- Donald Trump
