A blackout of television cameras in the US House Representatives during the Democrats' gun control sit-in may have spurred public interest in the protest as it forced the demonstrators to use social media to broadcast their message.
Democrats leapt on Facebook Live and Twitter's Periscope after the cameras, controlled by the House, went dark on Wednesday when presiding House officer and Republican Representative Ted Poe declared the chamber not in order during the protest.
As Democrats took to alternative forms of video broadcasting their message gained tremendous momentum from social media.
On Twitter, the hashtags #NoBillNoBreak and #HoldTheFloor have been tweeted at least 1.4 million times.
Of the roughly 20 members of Congress who remained at the sit-in overnight, 19 of them used Facebook Live for a total combined viewership of three million.
"It really connected with people out there," Congressman Scott Peters told Reuters.
"This whole phenomenon with [live video] struck a nerve."
Peters used the application Periscope, which is connected to the social media platform Twitter, to send out video.
"Without that, think about it, it would have been a caucus meeting where we talk to ourselves," he added.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi praised how her party harnessed social media.
"Without you and without the technology of Periscope [the sit-in] would just be a debate in the Halls of Congress unrecorded because they turned off the microphones," Pelosi said.
"But we raised our voices. They turned off the cameras and we went to Periscope."
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