As many of you have guessed, the number of people using the site has caused problems this morning. It's a mix of people reloading the front page to watch the signature count go up and people trying to sign petitions.
We've taken the trending petitions feature off the front page to prioritise people trying to sign petitions.
Our job is to help people to start and sign petitions about the things they care about, so we’re working really hard to make sure that can happen.
A lot of people have been asking about numbers. Between 80,000 and 100,000 people have been simultaneously viewing the petition to revoke article 50. Nearly 2,000 signatures are being completed every minute.
The rate of signing is the highest the site has ever had to deal with and we have had to make some changes to ensure the site remains stable and open for signatures and new petitions. Thanks for bearing with us.
Thanks so much for your patience. As you can tell, people are signing petitions really quickly. The sudden spikes in usage are causing intermittent problems, but we’re doing everything we can.
We're also aware that signature validation emails are taking longer than usual to get through. Please expect to wait 24 hours and check your junk email folders.
To reduce demand on the site, signature counts will not update automatically. Signatures are still being recorded. For the time being, the count will update every half hour or so.
People have been asking about who can sign petitions. Anyone who is a UK resident or a British citizen can sign a petition. This includes British citizens living overseas.
A few people have been talking about fraud and overseas signatures. As of this afternoon, approximately 96% of signatures on the petition were from the UK. That’s broadly what we’d expect for a petition like this.
We don’t comment in detail about security measures. We use different techniques - automated and manual - to identify and block signatures from bots, disposable email addresses and other sources that show signs of fraudulent activity. We also monitor signing patterns.
We’d also like to thank those of you on Twitter who have spent the past few days myth busting, telling people to check their junk email folders and being so supportive. It’s genuinely appreciated.
The petitions site now broadly stable. We have to thank the wonderful
@GDSTeamfor all their hard work to keep the site up and running.