The 2011 TIME 100 Poll

Cast your votes for the leaders, artists, innovators, icons and heroes that you think are the most influential people in the world. Though official voting for inclusion on the TIME 100 list has now closed (with Rain as the 2011 readers' choice), users can continue to vote for their favorites until the final list, selected by our editors, is revealed on Thursday, April 21st

TIME 100 Candidates

Julian Assange

By TIME StaffMonday, Apr. 04, 2011
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Dan Kitwood / Getty Images

Age: 39
Occupation: Co-founder and public face of WikiLeaks
Previous TIME 100 appearances: 0

A sort of Robin Hood of the information age, Julian Assange acquires secret and often controversial documents from government and corporate sources and then releases them to the public. Not universally admired, and facing sex-crime charges in Sweden, Assange has nevertheless drawn the admiration of many for his flinty belief in the value of transparency. Under house arrest in Britain since mid-December, he is currently fighting a ruling by a British court in February in favor of his extradition to Sweden. He also faces possible prosecution in the U.S. following the publication of classified material from the State Department and the Pentagon on the WikiLeaks website.

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