Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and dozens of other Canadian politicians have been targeted by a disinformation campaign likely connected to China.

Canadian MPs were discredited by the “spamouflage” campaign, the foreign ministry said.

The campaign was aimed at silencing Beijing’s critics, according to the report.

There have been no allegations of Chinese interference in Canadian affairs in the past.

According to Global Affairs Canada, its Rapid Response Mechanism detected a “spamouflage” campaign linked to Beijing in August.

On several Canadian politicians’ social media accounts, a bot network “left thousands of comments” in English and French on the campaign, which accelerated over the first weekend of September.

Various politicians were accused of criminal and ethical violations by a critic of the Chinese Communist Party in Canada, based on the comments.

Spamouflage also used ‘deep fake’ videos, which are modified digitally by artificial intelligence and targeted at individuals.

Canadian intelligence agencies and officials have accused Beijing of interfering in Canada’s elections in a series of allegations.

According to officials, these same accounts spread disinformation about the Hawaii wildfires in August, falsely claiming they were caused by a secret US military “weather weapon”.

Officials said the campaign also targeted Conservative opposition leader Pierre Polievre and several members of Mr Trudeau’s cabinet.

According to Global Affairs Canada, the posts were reported to the affected social media platforms, “resulting in much of the activity and network being removed”.

According to the department, affected politicians have also been alerted and advised on how to protect themselves and report suspected foreign interference.