Liberal senator Ian Macdonald has launched an attack on colleagues for having "fake bots" followers on social media, while unbeknownst to him he's being followed on Twitter by sex bots.
"I don't really use or understand Twitter, I think I've got 400 genuine followers," Macdonald told Senate Estimates on Tuesday morning, before launching into a 20- minute debate about social media.
"I see that one of my colleagues has 26,000 followers on their Twitter ... but according to this article most of them are purchased. They're fake bots. Are you able to buy fake bots?" Macdonald asked Home Affairs officials.
The colleague he's referring to is Labor senator Kimberley Kitching, who the Daily Telegraph claimed earlier this month had more than 7,000 Russian internet bots following her on Twitter. The paper tied Kitching to recent reports that robot accounts traced to Russia tried to influence last year’s UK election by promoting Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
The national cyber security adviser for the Department of Home Affairs, Alastair MacGibbon, was put forward as the best boomer at the table to answer Macdonald's question about fake bots.
"These social media companies are increasingly getting good at shutting down fake bots, but there's no doubt that there are factories that ... literally [have] people sitting behind keyboards and machines ... producing fake accounts over a whole range of social media accounts, not just Twitter, and some of those are available to purchase," MacGibbon said.
"Why people do that is to possibly drive revenue sometimes, so clicking on ads for example. And it may well be to spread what's loosely known as 'fake news'."
Macdonald then joked: "But I could feel a bit better myself if I purchased 30,000 fake bots then I could say I've got 30,000 followers, not just 400."
"Could you live with yourself if you knew they were fake?" Home affairs chief Mike Pezzullo asked.
Macdonald laughed with a look that indicated he was doubling down on his belief that all his followers are indeed genuine.
A quick investigation into Macdonald's Twitter account – which hasn't tweeted since November 2011 – shows he is also being followed by bots ... including sex bots.
One follower "Darla Lohr", with the handle @C74a10Lohr, has the Twitter bio: "Hi :( I am free, hot and open mind! Write me, dont be shy ".
The website linked to in her bio has been shut down for violating TinyURL's terms and conditions for being spam, fraud, malware or illegal.
Around 4% of Macdonald's 411 followers appear to be bots or fake accounts.
“Senator Macdonald obviously didn’t check his own follower list before he went on about bot accounts following other MPs," Greens senator Nick McKim told BuzzFeed News.
“Although judging by his output in parliament, a few of the bots might die of boredom. Unfortunately, bots are part of life on Twitter – just like stale old white blokes are part of life in the Liberal Party.”
Macdonald asked the Department of Home Affairs to investigate the accounts of senators who have a large number of bots following them, and the location of these bots.
"I am not suggesting for a moment that this senator is doing anything wrong or is knowingly doing anything wrong, but it does concern me," Macdonald said.
"I could buy a number of bots and unwittingly be spreading Russian propaganda ... for all of us there could be a salutary lesson," he concluded.
Home affairs officials said they would take his questions on notice.