Millions of people around the world watched House Democrats hold a sit-in this week to protest a lack of gun control votes.
With Republicans gaveling the House out of session, the Democrats used mobile phones to live-stream their speeches.
Their embrace of live video on sites like Facebook and Periscope violated longstanding House rules on the books for about 20 years, since before many members owned cellphones.
"No device may be used for still photography or for audio or video recording," the rules read.
The House renewed those regulations last year at the beginning of the session.
As is customary for the minority party, Democrats voted against the all of the House rules.
They supported the mobile device video ban when they were in the majority.
Democrats said the violation was worth it and promised similar tactics in the future.
"What use are these little rules if we can't do our job?" said Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Massachusetts.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, who could seek to punish the Democrats, dismissed the sit-in as a stunt.
"We are not going to allow stunts like this to stop us from carrying out the people's business," he said.
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