MADISON, Wis. —  For more than a decade Steve Noll has taught social media at Madison College.

He’s seen the darker sides of the platforms taking shape in recent years and said last week’s U.S. Capitol attack — organized and spurred on through many of those platforms — thrust that aspect of those services into daylight.

“Social media is a chainsaw. In the hands of a responsible person with safety glasses and who has read the manual, it can be a wonderful productive tool,” said Noll, a marketing professor at the college. 

Used other ways, “It is a terrifying weapon,” he said. “Unfortunately we saw that terrifying weapon come out.”

In the past several days social media and tech companies have banned President Donald Trump — and entire platforms —  as a response to the build up and attack of the capitol. As the bans rolled out Friday and into the weekend, some railed against them as violations of the first amendment. 

Noll said that’s not the case. 

“The Constitution is very clear that free speech was created so the government cannot regulate what you’re thinking and what you are saying,” he said.”Twitter, Facebook, all these social media companies are private companies and they have rules, specific terms of agreement, that you must click when you join the site that specifically outline that you cannot say inflammatory, illegal or provoke violence. There’s a whole litany of stuff people seem to have forgotten they agreed to.”

The attack is front and center at the moment, both in person and online and it likely will be for generations to come. Ultimately, history will be the judge how it’s handed.

“This will be studied for decades,” Noll said. “This is a turning point in not only American history, but human history.”