A study released jointly on Tuesday by Amnesty International and an artificial intelligence software company has declared that online harassment of women is a human rights abuse.

The study surveyed "millions of tweets received by 778 journalists and politicians from the UK and US" last year and say that reporters from across the political divide were looked at.

While the report says that women of colour get substantially more abuse than white women, people described as 'right wing' and 'left wing' both received mentions described as "abusive" or "problematic".

The report singles out Twitter as a place where women are harassed by trolls, stating:

Online abuse against women on this scale should not and does not have to exist on social media platforms. Companies like Twitter have a responsibility to respect human rights, which means ensuring that women using the platform are able to express themselves freely and without fear.

In total, the research found over 1 million tweets that were classified as either "abusive" or "problematic" directed as over 750 women on Twitter.

The findings of the survey were: