Newstalk Breakfast host Ciara Kelly has revealed she left Twitter after receiving death threats on the platform.

She was speaking amid calls for reform in the area, which could see proof of identification needed to open a social media account.

Ciara had a Twitter account for seven years, but she said had to close it down.

"I've had death threats, I've had deliberate lies and smears told about me that were absolutely untrue.

"I've had fairly vicious insults, I've been defamed over and over again.

"I have trended on Twitter ahead of the 'Late Late' on a Friday night because drunk Twitter is baring, what I would describe as, its generally fairly cowardly teeth.

"My kids have seen it, my kids have seen lies, they've seen threats, the rest of family and friends have seen it too.

"And the kind of joke is the people who are screaming at you online, and expressing their outrage, they actually believe themselves to have some kind of high moral ground.

"You're out there, just doing your job in the media, your job is to comment on things.

"And they are there screaming about how despicable you are for literally doing your job and insulting you.

"I think they believe what they're saying to be honest - and I think they come with their digital pitchforks.

"I suspect that they don't even recognise in themselves that they are a mob and that they're feeding off each other.

"That kind of group hate - that desire to ostracize, that desire to punish, to cast out, to cancel - it reminds me of nothing as much as pulpit bashing in the past.

"I think it is hate, truthfully, but it is hate that sees itself as virtuous".

She said she now views Twitter as a "shouting, hate fest that does nothing good to or for anyone on there" and says things need to change.