Human rights campaigners at Amnesty International are calling for Twitter to take action after revealing Kent Police dealt with more than 5,000 reports of online violence towards women.

The force has received 5,207 reports since last year - including 61 death threats.

The figures are revealed for the first time today by Amnesty, which submitted a Freedom of Information request forcing constabularies across Britain to release details.

It is now urging Twitter to do more to protect women victims - accusing the social media giant of not doing enough when violence and abuse is reported.

According to Amnesty, online violence attempts to shame, intimidate or degrade an individual on a digital platform.

Examples can include written abuse, stalking, threatening behaviour or the publishing of explicit materials relating to the victim.

One such tragic case is that of Cobham resident Molly McLaren who was stabbed to death by her ex-boyfriend last year.

Wouldham resident Joshua Stimpson had posted derogatory messages about the 23-year-old on social media when she ended their relationship.

He went on to fatally attack her in the car park of Chatham's Dockside Outlet shopping centre.

After he was sentenced to life imprisonment in February, Molly's parents, Doug and Jo McLaren, spoke publicly about the need to raise awareness of stalking.

In a statement, they said: "In light of this case, we feel there needs to be more awareness over the dangers and the need for people to report any concerns to the police.

"The verdict has brought us a small measure of comfort, but it seems nothing will take away the pain or allow us to come to terms with our Molly being taken from us.

"We are serving a lifetime of pain, anguish and loss."

In September last year, Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield told the House of Commons how she'd stopped using Facebook because of the vitriol aimed at her.

Speaking about the Amnesty statistics yesterday, she said: "These figures are both worrying and disappointing, but sadly not a surprise.

"Lots of women I know, in both public and private life, experience abuse online often including threats of violence.

"This behaviour has no place in a modern society and I universally condemn it and will continue to call it out when and where I see it."

Amnesty's findings across the county list 2,992 incidents of harassment in the year 2017-18 and 2,005 this year to date.

In the same period there were 73 reports of stalking and 61 threats to kill.

The figures support its previous claims social media platforms are failing to protect women's rights.

The charity's director Kate Allen said: “These police figures make it patently clear social media can be an incredibly toxic and dangerous place for women.

“Thousands of women are feeling so threatened by online violence and abuse they’re having to ask the police for help, and these figures are likely to just scratch the surface of what is a much larger problem.

"Amnesty’s previous research has shown for far too long social media companies, like Twitter, have been a space where women can too easily be confronted with death or rape threats, and where their genders, ethnicities and sexual orientations are under attack.

“Recently we’ve seen a great wave of solidarity and activism from women around the world, and Twitter has an important role in movements like #MeToo.

"But the online space must be made a safer place where women can express themselves freely without fear of violence.”

In January 2016, we reported how Brett Wiltshire, of Calder Road, Ringlestone, admitted sending explicit photographs of his ex-girlfriend to friends on Facebook.

Wiltshire also posted an offensive status about his former girlfriend’s personal life on a group that had almost 1,000 members.

Amnesty’s Write for Rights campaign is calling on Twitter's chief executive Jack Dorsey to make the site safer for users by enforcing its own rules on hateful conduct and abuse.

It wants Twitter to publicly share "comprehensive and meaningful information about levels of violence and abuse on the platform, be transparent about how it interprets and identifies violence and provide clarity on how it responds to incidents".

People can support the campaign by visiting the Amnesty website.

In response, Twitter's legal, policy and trust and safety global lead, Vijaya Gadde, said: "Twitter has publicly committed to improving the collective health, openness, and civility of public conversation on our service.

"Twitter’s health is measured by how we help encourage more healthy debate, conversations, and critical thinking. Conversely, abuse, malicious automation, and manipulation detract from the health of Twitter.

"We are committed to holding ourselves publicly accountable towards progress in this regard.

"Twitter uses a combination of machine learning and human review to adjudicate abuse reports and whether they violate our rules.

"Context matters when evaluating abusive behavior and determining appropriate enforcement actions.

"Factors we may take into consideration include, but are not limited to whether: the behavior is targeted at an individual or group of people; the report has been filed by the target of the abuse or a bystander; and the behavior is newsworthy and in the legitimate public interest.

"Twitter subsequently provides follow-up notifications to the individual that reports the abuse.

"We also provide recommendations for additional actions that the individual can take to improve his or her Twitter experience, for example using the block or mute feature."