An Ontario MPP and Liberal leadership candidate believes he could be the subject of election interference after some of his social media accounts were disabled.
Adil Shamji, the Ontario Liberal MPP for Don Valley East, had his account on X, formerly Twitter, suspended after spam complaints earlier in the week.
Then, on Saturday morning, he received a message from Facebook saying his business account had been disabled.
“It now feels like a coordinated attack that feels like an attempt to silence me or hinder my campaign,” Shamji, who is running for Liberal leadership, told Global News.
The first blow to Shamji’s online presence came from X.
The MPP was told his account had been permanently suspended for platform manipulation and spam. Shamji said he had no idea where the complaint had come from and denied he had done anything of the sort.
“I have not engaged in any activity that even resembles this conduct, and am thoroughly perplexed, along with the rest of my team,” he said in a statement.
On Saturday, Meta — the parent company of Facebook — sent Shamji an email telling him his Facebook business account had been disabled. The message means he can’t advertise on Facebook, a key tool used in party campaigns to raise money.
He has involved security staff at the Ontario legislature and lodged an immediate appeal with X. Bonnie Crombie, who is also running for the Ontario Liberal leadership, joined his plea, asking X’s support staff to reinstate Shamji’s account.
He said he has not heard back from the social media companies and remains in “a bit of a holding pattern.”
Shamji said he has raised the prospect of election interference with security staff at the legislature and would reach out to Elections Ontario and the Ontario Liberal Party as well.
“It is no coincidence that I am now being targeted with frivolous and malicious complaints. Support for our campaign is surging by the day, and we will not be deterred by this attempt to silence us,” Shamji said in a statement.
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