‘Megbot’ Twitter army relentless

Suspicious “bot-like” Twitter accounts and handles linked to Russian conspiracy theories have been “obsessively” tweeting about the Duchess of Sussex, an investigation has found.

Analysis of accounts interconnected into a “Meghan Markle” Twitter community found around 1000 “highly connected” accounts that have tweeted more than two and half million times since September.

The research was carried out by 89up, the consultancy firm that carried out an analysis of Facebook data for a DCMS select committee report published last month.

Last week, Kensington Palace published rules for followers of its social media channels, warning that anyone who posted offensive comments would be blocked or reported to the police in the wake of escalating abuse towards her and the Duchess of Cambridge.

Yesterday, research by the advocacy group Hope Not Hate and CNN revealed that out of 5200 abusive tweets directed at the Duchess in January and February, 3600 came from the same small cohort of trolls.

It comes as the Duchess yesterday joined a panel for International Women’s Day.

Saying men must not feel threatened by women as equals, she joked about feeling the “embryonic kicking of feminism” from inside her baby bump and said making men, including her husband Prince Harry, a part of the conversation was the only way to progress.

The Duchess, vice-president of the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust, spoke at length about the challenges facing women in developing countries.