MEGHAN Markle was bombarded with 5,200 hateful and racist tweets in two months with the majority of abuse coming from 20 vile trolls, an investigation has found.

The Duchess of Sussex is being targeted by the group of trolls whose accounts appear to have been created specifically to spew bile about the former Suits star.

New analysis has revealed that these 20 accounts sent more than 3,600 hateful tweets directed at, or about, the Duchess of Sussex in just two months, CNN reported.

The Twitter bios associated with the trolls typically contained Meghan-related hashtags like #Megxit and #Charlatanduchess.

Advocacy group Hope Not Hate analysed a sample of more than 5,000 tweets, posted between January and the middle of February, that contained the most commonly used anti-Meghan hashtags.

VILE TROLL GANG
Analysis of the tweets found that 20 accounts were responsible for about 70 per cent of the tweets, sharing anti-Meghan hashtags, pictures and memes.

The small group of accounts that troll the Duchess often re-tweet news articles that portray Meghan negatively and use racist language.

The findings come after the Royal Family declared war on social media trolls warning that the worst offenders will be reported to police.

Buckingham Palace published rules for those wanting to post on all social media channels run by them, Clarence House and Kensington Palace.

Courtiers have said they will block abusers and even encourage police to take legal action if tweets or posts are particularly bad.

ABUSE TARGETED AT MEGHAN AND KATE
It follows growing alarm at the abuse targeted at all royals - but particularly Kate and Meghan.

The two women have had vile sexist and abusive messages on Instagram and Twitter - with Meghan also receiving racist abuse.

The Palace statement said: “We ask that anyone engaging with our social media channels shows courtesy, kindness and respect for all other members of our social media communities.”

The rules, listed on the Royal Family’s website, call for comments not to “contain spam, be defamatory of any person, deceive others, be obscene, offensive, threatening, abusive, hateful, inflammatory or promote sexually explicit material or violence” or “promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age.”

ROYALS DECLARE WAR ON SOCIAL MEDIA TROLLS
Palace aides are understood to have been particularly concerned about users abusing one another, often in the guise of supporting “Team Meghan” or “Team Kate”.

Meghan has been accused of faking her pregnancy, had horrendous racist abuse and even been subject to threats of violence.

When Meghan made a surprise appearance at the British Fashion Awards, the British Fashion Council removed an Instagram picture of her as there were more than 500 abusive comments.

In one appalling post about Meghan, a user wrote: “I publicly state I believe this woman is a textbook sociopath narcissist. 99.99999% she’s a vile wreckingball.”

On Kate, another wrote: “Can we talk about Kate’s manic face and weird body movement. Is she copying Meghan?”

Kensington Palace has already said that aides spend several hours a week trying to moderate and delete abusive comments - often on pictures of the Cambridges or the Sussexes.

The statement said: “We reserve the right to determine, at our discretion, whether contributions to our social media channels breach our guidelines.

“WE reserve the right to hide or delete comments made on our channels, and well as block users who do not follow these guidelines.

“We also reserve the right to send any comments we deem appropriate to law enforcement authorities for investigation as we feel necessary or is required by law.”

Both William and Harry have spoken about the harmful effects of social media on people’s mental health.