The Twitter user getting a lot of Peter Dutton’s hate mail

IF YOU’RE keen to vent your spleen on social media at your most disliked politician — at least make sure it’s directed to the right person.

If you’re going to give Peter Dutton a piece of your mind on Twitter, make sure you have the right Peter Dutton. Picture: Claudia Baxter

NEW Yorker Peter Dutton has copped so much misdirected abuse on social media that his namesake and Immigration Minister has apologised and offered to buy him a drink.

Mr Dutton, the US one that is, started getting abusive tweets a few years ago, but wasn’t sure why.

It has been a steady stream of tweets since then.

“Depends on the week. Some weeks none. Some days dozens. I never know when a storm is going to hit,” Mr Dutton told news.com.au.

The problem comes about because people mistake his Twitter handle (@peterdutton) for the Liberal MP and Immigration Minister (@peterdutton — MP).

But the New Yorker seems to have embraced the situation, with his cover photo of Bart mooning Australia in The Simpsons episode set Down Under and featuring terrible accents.

“It’s been years since the first tweets, I guess while he was just a regular MP. Of course, I didn’t know that at first, but someone soon explained,” Mr Dutton said.

“The Australian Peter Dutton contacted me early on and apologised for the trouble. He was nice about it and I have no beef with him.”

But the US Mr Dutton says he tries to avoid Australian politics and what the latest thing annoying people on social media about the other Mr Dutton “just to stay sane”.

He said some of the abuse had got pretty bad, with some people even abusing him after he has explained they have the wrong person.

“The ones that are just a string of insults or suggestions about what I do with myself can be pretty bad. But it doesn’t bother me any more,” he said.

“They probably think they’re all nice and fighting evil as they see it, when they’re really just childish jerks.”

@peterdutton I would like to apologise for my fellow Australians who have (stupidly) confused you with that vile MP, @PeterDutton_MP #sorry

— meg dylan (@_sno_w) May 20, 2016

@jillethelmurray Why would you not belive it? I'm just some guy from NYC.

— peterdutton (@peterdutton) August 31, 2015

“Occasionally one of these jerks won’t apologise and get mad at me. I’ll just usually block them at that point.

“Most people will apologise, though. But then some will tell me I need to change my name, or tell me how I should feel about the other PD. Both of those are more irritating than the plain insults.”

But the New Yorker isn’t the only one to cop this sort of abuse.

There is also Mike Baird, from California, who helpfully tells Twitter users they are actually after MikeBairdMP (The NSW Premier).

@glucasmcgrath @mikebairdMP you want @ mikebairdMP not @ mikebaird

— mikebaird (@mikebaird) January 25, 2015

So the moral of the story?

Double check the Twitter handle before you vent your spleen.

“Overall, I’m amazed at just how many people seem to think they can just guess a politician’s Twitter address and don’t realise that more than one person in the world might have the same name,” Mr Dutton (the US one) says.