Super-injunctions give Twitter its biggest ever traffic day

Twitter saw its largest ever number of UK visitors on Monday, with gossip-hungry users flocking to the site to read the super-injunctions rumours spread by an anonymous user.

Twitter saw its traffic rise by 14 per cent on the day before as Brits flocked to the social network to get wind of the latest celebrity scandals covered up by super-injunctions, according to data published by analyst group Experian Hitwise on its blog.

The scandal broke after an anonymous user posted a list of famous actors, sports stars and TV presenters who have allegedly obtained the legal ban that stops the press from reporting about inconvenient allegations. More importantly, they're banned from even mentioning that the injunctions exist, which some critics suggest is too much of a restriction on freedom of speech.

The microblogging platform received more than 10 million hits as people tried to find out which celebrities had done what to merit all the frenzy.

One in every 200 UK Web visits was to Twitter.com -- 0.49 per cent of total Internet visits that day. Twitter also became the 17th most viewed site in the country, up from 19th.

But the curiosity of UK Internet users goes beyond Twitter. Experian Hitwise showed searches for the term 'super injunction' typed into Google, Bing or Yahoo have increased by 5,000 per cent in the last month, with over 500 unique search term variations that include the phrase.

A separate whistleblower -- not an anonymous user this time, but a prominent conservative blogger -- last night posted another 14 names of footballers, public figures and TV personalities who have supposedly taken out gagging orders, so it's likely Twitter will sustain its new prominence for a while.

Since Monday, the Twitter account used to spill the gossip went from 22,000 to 108,135 followers waiting for the next revelation.

Image credit: Experian Hitwise