Top 10 Most Influential People on Facebook

1. George Takei

Not only is Mr. Sulu a constant purveyor of hilarity on the social network—if you've been on Facebook for longer than a day, chances are one of your friends has reshared one of Takei's memetastic posts -- he's also been one of its biggest critics. Back in June 2012, Takei stood on top of his soap box and told his millions of followers that he was unhappy with Facebook's Promoted Posts, a feature that promised to expand the audience reach of any given post for a fee. "I understand that [Facebook] has to make money, especially now that it is public," wrote Takei, "but in my view this development turns the notion of 'fans' on its head." Takei still posts regularly on his Facebook fan page, though this November he announced that he was joining Tumblr, perhaps a sign that he was moving on. Photo courtesy of Flickr, Gage Skidmore

Click here to view this gallery. [More from Mashable: Facebook Temporarily Disables New Year’s Messages After Privacy Snafu] Back in March 2012, prominent blogger and former CNN bureau chief Rebecca MacKinnon stated that she believed Facebook yielded as much power as a nation.

"Sovereignty and power are shifting," she told the New Scientist. "Before the internet, these notions were controlled by nation states. But companies like Facebook are the sovereigns of cyberspace.

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"Facebook exercises power by shaping the way you interact with the world. It makes decisions about what you can do and not do on its network. And there are only a few countries in the world where Facebook is not the most popular social network."

Though MacKinnon's comments could justifiably be called hyperbolic -- nation states collect taxes, while Facebook does not -- she does make a very salient point. Whether we want to admit it or not, Facebook, more so than any other social media platform, has ingrained itself on to our society. The social network plays a prominent role in how we vote, how we worship, and how people do their jobs.

We took MacKinnon's argument into consideration when making our list of 2012's most influential Facebook users. This list is unconventional insofar as it doesn't enumerate the people with the most likes. This isn't a popularity contest.

Instead, we took a look back at what were the biggest Facebook stories of 2012 and the players involved. It's those people, not celebrities (sorry, Rihanna), who helped shape the biggest online community in the world.