David Seymour has denied spending up large on fake Instagram followers, dismissing accusations his following is now an "army of sex bots" after people noticed a massive jump in his social media numbers.
The ACT Party leader's follower count is currently sitting at nearly 74,000, having rapidly increased by about 50,000 overnight.
One Twitter user pointed out that 100 people hit follow on Seymour's Instagram account in less than 60 seconds, and later 2000 followers got on board in just 20 minutes.
Old mate tweeted that he would "never buy followers" and was asking Meta to explain what the heck was going on, but not everyone was convinced.
The politician then doubled down in an Instagram story addressing his followers both old and new, saying a friendly hello to any "bots from Russia" that had made their way onto his page.
"Gidday. If you're a bot from Russia or somewhere thereabouts and you've just started following my 'gram, welcome," he said.
"I hope you enjoy the content about free markets and free minds and a better future for New Zealand.
"If you're one of my traditional followers that I built up hard over many years I've had a few extra friends join us lately - we don't know why that is. We're certainly not paying people to follow us. That's not my style."
Social media users have insisted Seymour's following is now chokka with "sex bots and fake accounts", but others have pointed out someone else could have been responsible for splurging on fake followers to get the former 'Dancing With The Stars' contestant in trouble.
A spokesperson for the ACT MP said the situation was "a mystery" to them.
Someone slide into Zuckerberg's DMs, stat!
