Toronto company providing software and hosting services for online storefronts. Major player in the Canadian software industry.
Extremely right-wing executives. CEO Tobi Lütke has said that “products are speech” and defends storefronts for Nazi memorabilia, LibsOfTikTok, etc. COO Kasra Nejatian was a Jason Kenney staffer until he was fired for breaking fundraising rules. He is married to Candice Malcolm, the founder of True North, and is a former True North board member. According to a whistleblower, Nejatian personally intervenes to keep right-wing stores online.
Following Trump's 2024 re-election, Shopify changed its Acceptable Use Policy to remove prohibitions on “hateful content” and shut down (some of?) its Equitable Commerce programs.1 Under the new AUP, Shopify allows the sale of Nazi merchandise.2 Kanye West's infamous swastika t-shirt shop was taken down, but not because of the swastika: Shopify stated that West was banned because he “did not engage in authentic commerce practices”3 (notable similarity to X, where Musk marked West's account as NSFW not because he posted Nazi propaganda, but because he posted pornography).
Pierre Poilievre has publicly praised Shopify and Shopify executives have been publicly critical of the Trudeau government. The company has also allowed Anaida Poilievre to use their office space.4
Madison McLauchlan, “Shopify Quietly Kills Indigenous Entrepreneurship Program Build Native,” January 22, 2025, https://betakit.com/shopify-quietly-kills-indigenous-entrepreneurship-program-build-native/.
Thomas Seal, “Holocaust Denial Merchandise Tests Shopify’s Free Speech Ethos” (BNN Bloomberg, November 19, 2024), https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/2024/11/18/holocaust-denial-tests-tech-giant-shopifys-free-speech-ethos/.
Natalie Stechyson, “Shopify Takes down Kanye West’s Merch Website after He Promoted a \$30 Swastika T-shirt,” Cbc News, February 10, 2025, https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/kanye-west-x-deactivated-1.7455015.
Paris Marx, “Pierre Poilievre Is Cozying up to Canada’s Far-Right Broligarchs” (The Breach, December 19, 2024), https://breachmedia.ca/canada-far-right-tech-billionaires-pierre-poilievre/.