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.