Peter Dutton the talk of Twitter

It has been a tough 24 hours on Twitter for Peter Dutton as his name became the most tweeted term in posts also mentioning the prime minister.

Since 11.30am on Wednesday Peter Dutton's name became the most mentioned election topic to be tweeted in connection with both the opposition leader Bill Shorten and prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, according to Twitter.

The increased attention came after Mr Dutton claimed "illiterate and innumerate" refugees would swamp welfare queues and take the jobs of locals if the annual humanitarian intake was substantially increased.

But it wasn't only the immigration minister, whose handle is @PeterDutton_MP, receiving a barrage of tweets, a New York man with the Twitter handle @peterdutton was tired of being mistweeted.

"I say illiterate Australians can't be bothered to write the correct Twitter address," he tweeted.

Social media responses to Mr Dutton's comments about refugees have been strong, with actor Sam Neil's tweet: "More Foul Demonising of refugees as illiterate job stealers. Oh right, it's #auspol election time again in The Lucky Country. #Dutton," becoming the most shared election related tweet on Thursday morning.

TOP ELECTION TOPICS MENTIONED ALONG WITH LEADER'S NAME

* Mr Turnbull: Peter Dutton, Townsville, refugees

* Mr Shorten: Peter Dutton, Botany freight line, more jobs

* Richard Di Natale: International Society for the Study of Drug Policy, Peter Dutton, electric vehicles

SOURCE: Twitter