Elon Musk has promised to investigate why several far-right personalities in Brazil were removed from Twitter after some high-profile names, including the grandson of a former military dictator, complained they were being denied free speech.
Twitter Brasil suspended profiles of three rightwing politicians recently elected to congress: Carla Zambelli, Gustavo Gayer, and Nikolas Ferreira, a 26-year-old who won 1.5m votes and has 2 million followers.
They and other supporters of the extremist president Jair Bolsonaro were removed from the platform in the past week in response to an undisclosed legal demand.
All criticised the decision, as did Paulo Figueiredo Filho, the grandson of João Figueiredo, Brazil’s military president between 1979 and 1985, and now a commentator for the rightwing media operation Jovem Pan.
“Hey @elonmusk, your company has been imposing a draconian ideological censorship of the Brazilian people’s right to free speech,” Figueiredo tweeted. “We are at a critical moment in our history! Wtf is going on?? We thought you bought Twitter exactly for this reason! Rise and lift the censorship NOW!”
“I will look into this,” Musk replied.
Figueiredo, whose account with 946,000 followers is still active, did not respond to a tweet asking for comment but he did reveal that his Telegram account had been suspended.
His grandfather was the last military president before Brazil returned to democracy after a 21-year dictatorship that saw hundreds of people killed and thousands more tortured and jailed.
How did it begin?
Brazil’s leftist president, João Goulart, was toppled in a coup in April 1964. General Humberto Castelo Branco became leader, political parties were banned, and the country was plunged into 21 years of military rule.
The repression intensified under Castelo Branco’s hardline successor, Artur da Costa e Silva, who took power in 1967. He was responsible for a notorious decree called AI-5 that gave him wide ranging dictatorial powers and kicked off the so-called “anos de chumbo” (years of lead), a bleak period of tyranny and violence which would last until 1974.
What happened during the dictatorship?
Supporters of Brazil’s 1964-1985 military regime - including Jair Bolsonaro - credit it with bringing security and stability to the South American country and masterminding a decade-long economic “miracle”.
It also pushed ahead with several pharaonic infrastructure projects including the still unfinished Trans-Amazonian highway and the eight-mile bridge across Rio’s Guanabara bay.
But the regime, while less notoriously violent than those in Argentina and Chile, was also responsible for murdering or killing hundreds of its opponents and imprisoning thousands more. Among those jailed and tortured were Brazil’s first female president, Dilma Rousseff, then a leftwing rebel.
It was also a period of severe censorship. Some of Brazil’s best-loved musicians - including Gilberto Gil, Chico Buarque and Caetano Veloso - went into exile in Europe, writing songs about their enforced departures.
How did it end?
Political exiles began returning to Brazil in 1979 after an amnesty law was passed that began to pave the way for the return of democracy.
But the pro-democracy “Diretas Já” (Direct elections now!) movement only hit its stride in 1984 with a series of vast and historic street rallies in cities such as Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Belo Horizonte.
Civilian rule returned the following year and a new constitution was introduced in 1988. The following year Brazil held its first direct presidential election in nearly three decades.
The controversy comes as Bolsonaro’s followers continue to protest against his defeat by the leftist leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Lula beat Bolsonaro in a second-round run-off by 50.9% to 49.1% on 30 October and the days since have been marked by demonstrations, many of which are by supporters calling for a return of military rule.
Hundreds of roads and highways were blocked by the protesters last week and although most have now been cleared anger continues unabated online.
The most bitter election in decades was marked by fake news and disinformation, and Jovem Pan, a popular slate of TV, radio and websites where Figueiredo works, fell foul of Brazil’s electoral laws.
The country’s electoral court ruled it had presented false information about Lula and granted the former president airtime to respond to the reports.
The company said it was being censored but the fallout continued after Lula’s win, with several of Jovem Pan’s high-profile journalists and commentators leaving the organisation.
Some are now reportedly preparing to start their own rightwing news channel that has already been compared to Fox News.
Musk bought Twitter for $44bn last month. The billionaire owner of Tesla and SpaceX has since fired half the company’s 7,500-strong workforce and rolled out a series of changes that have horrified many users of the platform.
The figures banned by Twitter Brasil are among the most controversial people in the country.
A self-described conservative Christian, Ferreira received the most votes of any candidate in Brazil’s congressional elections in October, with 1.5m votes.
The electoral court last month ordered him to take down a video claiming that if Lula were elected he would encourage crime and drug use, support abortion and close churches.
Zambelli, meanwhile, won almost 1m votes in São Paulo, Brazil’s most populous state. An outspoken Bolsonaro ally, she hit the headlines the day before the second-round ballot when she pulled a gun on a man in a busy São Paulo street after a political argument.
