The expulsion of Donald Trump marks a watershed for Facebook and Twitter

THE MEGAPHONE has been taken away. On January 8th Twitter, a social network, announced that it was “permanently suspending” President Donald Trump's account. Viewed in isolation, the two tweets that led to the ban were, by Mr Trump’s standards, fairly innocuous. But Twitter said it had taken its decision in the wake of the riot at America’s Congress on January 6th, in which five people died as legislators’ offices were ransacked by a crowd of Mr Trump's supporters after Mr Trump had encouraged them to march on the Capitol. It said that continuing to give Mr Trump access risked allowing him to incite further violence.

Other social networks have taken a similarly tough line. Facebook has said that Mr Trump's account will be banned for “at least” the remainder of his term in office, which is due to expire on January 20th. Snapchat, a smaller social network, has likewise blocked the president's access. Besides defenestrating Mr Trump, Twitter also banned the accounts of Michael Flynn and Sidney Powell, two of the president’s dwindling circle of allies. And it promised to do the same for accounts dedicated to QAnon, a nutty but resilient conspiracy theory that holds that America is run by a cabal of Satanic paedophiles.