Eight-year-old Bana Alabed who drew global attention with her Twitter updates from besieged Aleppo is named one of the most influential people on the internet by Time Magazine.
By Lin Taylor
LONDON, June 26 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - An eight-year-old Syrian girl who drew global attention with her Twitter updates from besieged Aleppo was on Monday named one of the most influential people on the internet by Time Magazine.
Other people on this year's list included British author J.K. Rowling, pop singer Rihanna, celebrity Kim Kardashian, and U.S. President Donald Trump.
Time makes its annual choice based on those with global influence on social media and in generating news headlines.
Aleppo is very good city but we need peace. I want to live like a child but instead I am stressed now
— Bana Alabed (@AlabedBana) September 24, 2016
I can't even have proper breathing. I need peace please
— Bana Alabed (@AlabedBana) September 24, 2016
Helped by her mother Fatemah, who manages the @AlabedBana Twitter account, Bana Alabed uploaded pictures and videos of life amidst the Syrian war, gaining around 365,000 followers on the micro-blogging site since last September.
"I can't go out because of the bombing please stop bombing us," Bana wrote when she first joined Twitter on Sept. 24, 2016.
"Aleppo is very good city but we need peace. I want to live like a child but instead I am stressed now," she wrote.
Last December, Bana, who was seven at the time, and her family were evacuated safely from the rebel-held eastern part of Aleppo to Turkey, where they were greeted by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan at his palace.
(Reporting by Lin Taylor @linnytayls, Editing by Ros Russell; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters that covers humanitarian issues, conflicts, global land and property rights, modern slavery and human trafficking, women's rights, climate change and resilience. Visit http://news.trust.org to see more stories)
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