The threat to Donald Trump’s chances of returning to the White House in 2024 may not lie just in Washington, where impeachment proceedings are due to begin this week, but in Silicon Valley, where technology companies have launched an unprecedented crackdown on the president’s promotion machine. 

Mr Trump no longer has a Twitter or a Facebook account after both companies barred him from their platforms following the violence wreaked by his supporters at the US Capitol last week. Meanwhile, Apple, Google and Amazon have all taken steps to clamp down on Parler, the niche Twitter rival used by many of Mr Trump’s most fervent rightwing supporters.

The moves have added fuel to a fierce debate about where the balance lies between a tech company’s right to censor users who breach their content policies versus an individual’s right to freedom of expression.