Research conducted by Kick It Out revealed a staggering 134,000 discriminatory posts this season, of which 39,000 were aimed at Premier League players. The study by social media management agency Tempero and analytics group Brandwidth, uncovered an alarming amount of abuse directed at some of football's biggest stars.
Balotelli, whose extravagent personality on and off the field have made him a polarising figure among fans, experienced 8,000 discriminatory messages, four times the amount of abuse as the next player - Arsenal striker Danny Welbeck - who received 1,700 discriminatory messages.
Balotelli's Reds team-mate Daniel Sturridge came in at third, with 1,600 discriminatory messages, 60 percent of which were found to be based on sexual orientation.
The findings have prompted Kick It Out to form a task force aimed at addressing the issue football-oriented discrimination on social media.
"It is really shocking. We knew there was an issue but even we were shocked by how many the players have received," Kick It Out director Roisin Wood said. "For one player to have received over 8,000 abusive messages is phenomenally awful.
"You cannot accept players getting that level of abuse so we want to bring this expert group together to see how we can address this.
"We don't see the problem going away. Some of the perpetrators are young people and they need educating that you cannot sit in your room and abuse people like this. It is also an issue for the social media platforms and how they address this."
Kick it out's findings also revealed:
:: The Premier League clubs receiving the highest volume of discriminatory posts were Chelsea (20,000), Liverpool (19,000), Arsenal (12,000), Manchester United (11,000) and Manchester City (11,000).
:: Twitter was the most common platform for abuse with 88 per cent of messages coming in the form of tweets.
:: Matches which led to the highest number of discriminatory posts were: Chelsea v Liverpool in the Capital One Cup on 27 January (AEST), Sunderland v Manchester United in the Premier League on 25 August (AEST) and Arsenal v Manchester City in the Community Shield on 11 August (AEST).
