'Gidday to bots from Russia': Act leader David Seymour's message to new followers, denies paying for them

Act Party leader David Seymour has asked Meta to explain why his Instagram following has increased so rapidly in the past few days. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Act Party leader David Seymour is rejecting claims he has been on a spending spree buying up thousands of followers to bolster his official Instagram account.

Since Wednesday Seymour's account, which trumpets Act policy and political engagements, has ballooned from 23,800 to 73,900 followers.

At one point 100 followers joined the minor party leader's account in less than a minute and a further 2000 followers were added in 20 minutes.

David Seymour's instagram account has seen it swell massively in the space of 48 hours. Photo / Instagram

The sudden surge of followers has raised suspicion the Epsom MP or those connected to the Act Party have been paying for followers to boost the modest following.

However, an indignant Seymour has rejected the accusation saying he would never pay for followers and he was demanding an explanation from Meta about the unexpected upswing.

We would never buy followers. My team has asked @Meta for an explanation. https://t.co/PY4tknnqSR

— David Seymour (@dbseymour) April 7, 2022

In the meantime he is making political capital on the change of social media fortune posting a personal welcome message to the tens of thousands of new followers he dubbed his "new bot followers".

"Gidday. If you're a bot from Russia or somewhere thereabouts and you've just started following my gram welcome. 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.

"We've got in touch with Meta and we're hoping to get an explanation soon."

Many have taken Seymour to task on social media claiming they may be sex bots and fake accounts.

David Seymour’s official Instagram count has gained over 30 thousand followers since yesterday and his following is now full of sex bots and fake accounts. The official @actparty thinks there is something humorous about their leader misleading the country. https://t.co/VF0GhN87FE

— Shaneel Lal 🧚🏻 (They/Them) (@shaneellall) April 7, 2022

A spokesperson for the MP said at this stage they didn't know the source of the sex bots that had flooded the leader's account.

"It's a mystery to us at this stage."

While leaders of parties across the House enjoy a modest level of social media following, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern outstrips them all with 1.7 million followers on Instagram.