A quarter of Maltese have been exposed to racial hatred or religious extremism on social media, the second highest rate in Europe, a recent study has found.

The detailed Cyber Security Report, published this week by the European Commission, found that only Swedes were slightly more likely to find the disturbing material on their preferred social network.

Despite the amount of this online content remaining fairly steady across the EU, Malta actually registered a significant spike in racist social media.

The report said the number of Maltese who accidentally clicked on or scrolled to the offensive material had increased by 13 per cent since 2013.

This was the largest increase among member states.

Read more on Times of Malta.

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