White supremacists are using Twitter with "relative impunity" a report claims.

This is in contrast with the active crackdown on Twitter of the so-called Islamic State group and its supporters.

The accounts of white supremacist groups, based mainly in the USA, often have far more followers than those of Islamic extremists, the report found.

The research was done by the George Washington University's Program on Extremism in Washington DC.

Support for Nazis and white supremacists on the rise

The study found a sharp rise in support for eighteen prominent white supremacy accounts, including the American Nazi Party.

The Twitter followers of these groups have increased to a total of more than 25,000 - up from about 3,500 in 2012.

"White nationalists and Nazis outperformed IS in average friend and follower counts by a substantial margin," the report said.

"Nazis had a median follower count almost eight times greater than IS supporters, and a mean count more than 22 times greater."

Report author J.M. Berger said the study had found that "white nationalists and Nazis operate with relative impunity" on Twitter.

The data collected included analysis of tweets of selected accounts and their followers.

It found the data represents a fraction of the white nationalist presence on Twitter and was insufficient to estimate the overall online size of the groups.

Twitter has shut down 360,000 accounts related to terrorism since 2015

The "relative impunity" with which white supremacy groups operate on Twitter contrasts with action taken against supporters of groups like IS, according the research conducted.

In February, Twitter announced that it had suspended more than 125,000 accounts since mid-2015 for violating its prohibition on violent threats and the promotion of terrorism.

More recently in August, Twitter said in a blog post that it had suspended an additional 235,000 accounts in the six months since the announcement back in February.

A Twitter spokesman declined to comment in advance of the release of the study.

Find us on Instagram at BBCNewsbeat and follow us on Snapchat, search for bbc_newsbeat