Abuse via Twitter is a daily reality for some users, and more often than not it’s women at the receiving end of these nasty and often frightening comments.
When you think about who might be behind these horrible women-bashing messages, it is often lonely men that might come to mind, but a new study confirms this is not the case.
Research carried out by think tank Demos has revealed that women are just as likely to send sexist and aggressive messages as men.
Demos monitored Twitter over a three week period, and found that a staggering 6,500 different UK users were targeted by 10,000 tweets - all containing abusive misogynistic content. Disturbingly, 50% of the people sending the tweets were female.
A shocking figure considering women are the ones being targeted. In fact, the research discovered that 8 out of the top 10 most abused accounts on Twitter were women.
The new research coincides with the launch of Reclaim The Internet, a campaign organised by MPs in response to growing problem of abuse on social media. The body is looking to launch a cross-party campaign to put an end to sexist behaviour via platforms such as Twitter.