Former U.S. President Donald Trump staged a press conference on Wednesday to announce legal action against Facebook, Twitter and Google, accusing the tech giants of censoring conservative opinions.

“We’re asking the U.S. district court for the southern district of Florida to order an immediate halt to social media companies’ illegal, shameful censorship of the American people,” he said in what The Guardian describes as “the faux-presidential setting of blue lectern, white columns and a dozen U.S. flags at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.”

Following the 6 January insurrection, Mr Trump was banned from Twitter and suspended from Facebook until at least 2023 because of the threat of whipping up further violence.

“We’re demanding an end to the shadow banning, a stop to the silencing, a stop to the blacklisting, banishing and cancelling that you know so well. Our case will prove this censorship is unlawful. It’s unconstitutional, and it’s completely un-American. We all know that. We know that very, very well,” he noted.

NetChoice CEO Steve DelBianco said in a statement: “President Trump has no case.

“The First Amendment protects Americans and our media from government control. Mr. Trump's mistaken view of the First Amendment would empower the government to direct, mandate, and ban political speech on the internet.”

Meanwhile, a columnist for Forbes opined: “It is unlikely that Trump will actually accomplish much, except perhaps the publicity it will generate.”