Interesting that the excommunication seems moderated via Twitter, the bastion of gossip culture. The talmud says that gossip invites the evil spirit. If one takes that metaphorically and considers the way gossip primes our psyches to react in an automatic negative way towards the targets of gossip, one will notice the dynamic. I truly believe that in this sense Twitter is a force of evil in our society and we ought to shun it. This is not to say that quitting Twitter would stop gossip or that it would solve the world's problems, but I do feel it would make the world a better place just by diminishing gossip. The same goes for all "social" media. It's destructive.