Following the acquittal of George Zimmerman for fatally shooting 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2013, activists and members of the American black community took to the streets in protest, in addition to using #BlackLivesMatter as an outlet to air their frustration on social media. According to the Pew Research Center, the hashtag has been mentioned in public tweets nearly 30 million times (as of May’18) to start a discussion around race-related issues, especially, police brutality. In the long run, #BlackLivesMatter helped in the removal of the Confederate flag in South Carolina capitol (that was eventually removed), prompted the federal investigation of potentially unfair police practices in Ferguson, and pushed the Democratic presidential candidates to introduce policies for the betterment of black people in the country.