conservative website in support of Governor Walker. While social media use was most prevalent amongst the protestors, supporters of Assembly Bill 11 also utilized social media to a significant degree. Impact of social media on the 2011 Wisconsin protests The 2011 Wisconsin protests were some of the first instances in which social media played a significant role in mobilizing protestors. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, it allowed for an unprecedented mobilization of people and ideas. Without the use of social media, it is possible that a movement as large as the 2011 Wisconsin protests would not have reached such an international scale, nor emerged so quickly. Social media use also contributed to the overnight occupation of the Wisconsin state capitol by protestors. When Republican lawmakers were returning to Wisconsin during the night to vote on and pass Assembly Bill 11, pro-union news reporters and organizers used Twitter to quickly mobilize protestors to the capitol on a short notice. Since it was during the night, no news stations were reporting on the issue. However, social media in the form of Twitter and Facebook, supported by the wide proliferation of smartphones, enabled the protestors to quickly organize without mobilization support from traditional public media like the news. Media On Twitter, people used the hashtag "#wiunion" to tag tweets related to the protests. References Politics of Wisconsin 2011 in Wisconsin Wisconsin