{"id":432,"date":"2019-10-27T10:53:15","date_gmt":"2019-10-27T14:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/2019\/10\/27\/peter-franchot-admits-to-alias-twitter-personality\/"},"modified":"2020-01-28T15:35:11","modified_gmt":"2020-01-28T20:35:11","slug":"peter-franchot-admits-to-alias-twitter-personality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/2019\/10\/27\/peter-franchot-admits-to-alias-twitter-personality\/","title":{"rendered":"Peter Franchot Admits to Alias Twitter Personality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Until a few days ago, Pietro Derelicto was an unknown name on Twitter. Pietro\u2019s account tended to tweet about Maryland politics and followed many of the state\u2019s delegates and senators, but he had no followers of his own and little to no engagement with his messages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His anonymity changed this weekend, however, after Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot mentioned to a Torch reporter that, inspired by Mitt Romney, he had recently opened an hidden account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knowing Franchot\u2019s residence in Takoma Park and his staunch support for Governor Larry Hogan, it took the Torch only a few minutes to locate the account, which exhibits Franchot\u2019s uniquely illogical mix of support for the unapologetically liberal town and the annoyingly conservative Hogan. Most tellingly, his profile describes Pietro as the “Computer Troller of Maryland.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Esta mio. Did I say that right?” said Franchot, in broken Spanish, after being asked about Derelicto. \u201cI saw how people in both parties enjoyed Romney\u2019s undercover Twitter presence and thought I could do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite Franchot\u2019s intention, most Marylanders didn\u2019t seem to show the same interest in the Pietro Derelicto account as they had when Romney\u2019s account was uncovered. \u201cWait, who are we talking about?” asked Silver Spring resident Frank Padilla. “I don’t recognize either of those names. Were they on The Wire or something?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never heard of Peter Franchot, and I\u2019ve never heard of the job of Comptroller,\u201d said Julian Evans of Burtonsville. \u201cIn fact, I think you\u2019re making it up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aside from politics, Derelicto seems to be a fun loving guy. He loves Katy Perry, going to county fairs, visiting local breweries, and is ostensibly a huge fan of Maryland sports teams. In one tweet he wrote:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Some view writing under a fake name as a cowardly act, but others believe it allows Franchot to peel off his many years of snake skin and safely interact with the people he represents. That can be a particular concern in the current age of social media, where one out of context tweet can destroy you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Franchot has to publicly maintain a centrist Democratic demeanor if he wants to be Maryland’s governor someday, but Pietro Derelicto can be a wild card who is free to express his true Republican self without consequences. It’s no wonder Derelicto openly supports Hogan, while Franchot publicly supports a local organic grocery store fighting against an evil developer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that his identity has been revealed, it remains unclear if Franchot will continue to tweet as Derelicto. “Its been fun getting out of my shell, but I live in Takoma Park,” stated Franchot. “And that means repressing my true self to avoid judgement.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Until a few days ago, Pietro Derelicto was an unknown name on Twitter. Pietro\u2019s account tended to tweet about Maryland politics and followed many of the state\u2019s delegates and senators, but he had no followers of his own and little to no engagement with his messages. His anonymity changed this weekend, however, after Maryland Comptroller…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":435,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","wpcat-17-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/takomatorch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/FRANCHOT.jpg?fit=1074%2C679&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paPZSG-6Y","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":442,"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions\/442"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}