Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” 2019 was announced Wednesday — and their selection has outraged both conservatives and liberals.
In their online poll, voters selected “Hong Kong Protesters” as their person of the year by a staggering 95 percent of the vote.
Time, owned by Salesforce billionaire co-founder Marc Benioff, chose to ignore the vote.
Instead, controversial Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg was named Time’s youngest “Person of the Year” on Wednesday.
On social media, critics blamed Salesforce’s close relationship with China for the pick.
Salesforce recently inked a multi-billion dollar deal with Chinese web giant Alibaba.
Thunberg, 16, has become the face of the climate movement, drawing large crowds with her appearances at protests and conferences over the past year and a half.
Liberals have welcomed her uncompromising activism. But many have criticized her condescending, combative tone.
“For sounding the alarm about humanity’s predatory relationship with the only home we have, for bringing to a fragmented world a voice that transcends backgrounds and borders, for showing us all what it might look like when a new generation leads, Greta Thunberg is TIME’s 2019 Person of the Year,” the media franchise said Wednesday on its website.
Thunberg was in Madrid on Wednesday, where she addressed negotiators at the U.N.’s COP25 climate talks.
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The Associated Press contributed to this article