Social Media Help Fuel Protests After New York Officer Not Indicted Over Death of Eric Garner

Soon after a grand jury decided not to indict a white New York City police officer in the death of a black man, Twitter and Facebook lighted up with thousands of messages organized around hashtags such as #EricGarner, #ICantBreathe and #BlackLivesMatter.

Analytics firm Topsy said more than 69,000 tweets were being sent per hour with the hashtag #EricGarner and 16,000 per hour with #ICantBreathe. Several Web pages on Facebook and Tumblr popped up calling for protests in cities around the country, from Westlake Center mall in Seattle to the downtown Underground Atlanta shopping center. “There’s no need for a group when you have a hashtag,” said Stephanie Koithan, 28, who said she found out about the protests on Facebook. “There’s no one managing it. A hashtag takes a life of its own.” New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton has said police are watching social media closely.