Meghan Markle has been at the centre of a campaign of abuse specifically designed to attack the Duchess of Sussex, according to new research. The former actress has sparked mixed opinions among the public since joining the Royal Family in 2018 but media research agency Storyful has found several social media accounts have been set up to specifically "abuse" the Duchess. Padraic Ryan, News Intelligence director at the firm, told Sky News: "There are multiple pages and profiles across mainstream platforms like Facebook, like YouTube, like Twitter, Instagram, all seemingly set up with the single purpose - or the major purpose - of abusing Meghan Markle."
Mr Ryan suggested the surge in trolling accounts could be the result of attempts to increase personal popularity on social media.
He continued: "Meghan Markle is popular - she's box office.
"These people know that other people are going to be searching for Meghan Markle and, if you like, they're getting on board the bandwagon.
"They choose to use abusive terms to perhaps elicit disgust. They know it works and they don't really care whether it's positive or negative."
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Meghan Markle has become the target of widespread abuse online (Image: GETTY)
Kensington Palace was forced to intervene against the abuse and announced "hateful" comments would be banned from the Royal Family's official social platforms.
The palace, which until last month served as headquarter to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex before their move under Buckingham Palace's communication team, insisted their accounts were created to foster a "safe environment" and comments promoting "discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or
