»<i>The stronger forces that became intertwined with the protests — such as Google and Wikipedia — provided more of a nudge rather than direct leadership.</i><p>This may be fitting facts to the hypothesis. The difference between the flailing Occupy and successful anti-SOPA movements was that the former behaves like a "starfish" while the latter had a brain. Anti-SOPA probably didn't succeed because of people writing to their representatives - it had bang because Google and Wikipedia gave it front page priority.