The Queen has been told to "f*** off and die" after being targeted by Twitter trolls after sending her first royal tweet.
It came as she passed a technological milestone yesterday by tweeting her first message on the micro-blogging site to declare a new Science Museum gallery open.
The official @BritishMonarchy account she used saw its followers grow by tens of thousands, but was immediately attacked by trolls sending abusive messages such as "F*** off and die".
The first royal tweet was sent with the press of a button on a tablet computer, and read: "It is a pleasure to open the Information Age exhibition today at the @ScienceMuseum and I hope people will enjoy visiting. Elizabeth R."
A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: "We were fully cognisant of the nature of Twitter, where anyone anywhere can express their opinion, but we were delighted that so many people - in their tens of thousands - responded positively.
"We also received tens of thousands of new followers as a result of the tweet.
"We saw some tweets with profanity but that is just the nature of the format."
Scotland Yard said it had not received any complaints and was not investigating the matter.
Following the tweet, users took the opportunity to ask the Queen about her X Factor preferences or suggest that she post memes of cats.
Fake royal Twitter handle @Queen_UK, which has 1.2 million followers, joked: "Can't believe someone's started a sodding parody account."
The Queen sent her tweet to unveil a new attraction dedicated to the history of communication and information.
The £15.6 million gallery features more than 800 objects and explores how breakthroughs have transformed the way people have communicated over the past 200 years.
The Royal Family have embraced social media in recent years, opening accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Flickr.
The Duke of York is the most prolific tweeter in the family and has an account under his own name and signs off messages with AY, for Andrew York.
The micro-blogging site has been used by Prince Harry, who sent his first official tweet in May, but he admitted during the summer he no longer has a personal account, while chatting to a group of students who were promoting his Invictus Games on social media.
The Queen and members of her family are represented on Twitter by the account @BritishMonarchy, while @ClarenceHouse covers the Prince of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry.
The @BritishMonarchy account went from 722,000 to 820,000 followers after the Queen sent her tweet.
HOWEVER - controversy has erupted, after it was spotted that the Tweet was sent by an iPhone, even though the picture shows the Queen using an iPad.
It is possible, of course, that she was merely using the iPhone version of the app on an iPad. But we demand answers. Constitutional experts were huddled on Friday debating the implications.