Former US President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit against tech giants Google, Twitter and Facebook, claiming to be a victim of censorship.
The lawsuit also targets the three companies’ CEOs.
Mr Trump was suspended from his social accounts in January earlier this year over public safety concerns in the wake of the Capitol riots, led by his supporters.
On Wednesday, Mr Trump called the lawsuit “a very beautiful development for our freedom of speech”.
In a news conference from his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey, Mr Trump railed against social media companies and Democrats, who he accused of espousing misinformation.
“We are demanding an end to the shadow-banning, a stop to the silencing, and a stop to the blacklisting, banishing, and cancelling that you know so well,” he said.
The suit requests a court order to end alleged censorship. Mr Trump added if they could ban a president, “they can do it to anyone”.
At the same time on Wednesday, Mr Trump’s Republican allies in Congress released a memo describing their plan “to take on Big Tech”.
The agenda calls for antitrust measures to “break up” the companies, and a revamping of a law known as Section 230.
Section 230, which Mr Trump tried to repeal as president, essentially stops companies like Facebook and Twitter from being liable for the things that users post. It gives the companies “platform” rather than “publisher” status.
“It’s a liability protection the likes of which nobody in the history of our country has ever received,” Mr Trump said, criticising the law on Wednesday.
He added that the law invalidates the companies’ statuses as private companies.