As general manager of Reddit, the web’s dominant social-news site, Erik Martin oversees a community where tens of millions of members share…well, everything: articles, photos, opinions and advice on just about every topic of interest to human beings. Even the President of the United States participated in 2012, answering questions during one of the site’s “Ask Me Anything” sessions. But Reddit’s almost-anything-goes philosophy has its downsides. In October, Gawker’s Adrian Chen unmasked the man he called the web’s biggest troll: Michael “Violentacrez” Brutsch, a prominent Reddit member who, until the site tightened its policies, was responsible for a bevy of popular content which was at best distasteful and at worst pornographic.
People Who Mattered in 2012
Erik Martin and Violentacrez
Full List
People Who Mattered
- Bashar Assad
- Ben Bernanke
- Jeff Bezos
- John Boehner
- Chris Christie
- Hillary Clinton
- Bill Clinton
- Stephen Colbert
- Claire Danes
- Gabby Douglas
- Mario Draghi
- Lena Dunham
- Sandra Fluke
- Roger Goodell
- Klaus Jacob
- E.L. James
- Jay-Z
- Xi Jinping
- Paul Kagame
- Imran Khan
- Christine Lagarde
- Erik Martin and Violentacrez
- Trayvon Martin
- Marissa Mayer
- Angela Merkel
- Khaled Meshal
- Kate Middleton
- Enrique Peña Nieto
- Benjamin Netanyahu
- Frank Ocean
- Michelle Obama
- Larry Page
- Jonah Peretti
- David Petraeus
- Michael Phelps
- Psy
- Pussy Riot
- Susan Rice
- John Roberts
- Mitt Romney
- Paul Ryan
- Thein Sein
- Nate Silver
- Anne-Marie Slaughter
- Jon Stewart
- Aung San Suu Kyi
- Undocumented Immigrants
- Kim Jong Un
- Kate Upton
- Elizabeth Warren