News Digest

LOL: Queen Elizabeth sends first tweet, five years after Twitter account was set up

Queen Elizabeth sent her first tweet during a visit to the Science Museum in London on Friday. The 88-year-old monarch formally opened the museum’s new Information Age Galleries by touching a tablet screen to send her message around the world. She tweeted through the @BritishMonarchy Twitter account, which was set up in 2009 and has 733,000 followers. She posted: “It is a pleasure to open the Information Age exhibition today at the @ScienceMuseum and I hope people will enjoy visiting. Elizabeth R.” The message was pre-typed, before she published it to Twitter by touching the screen in front of an audience at the event.

As the single largest gallery inside the Science Museum, Information Age is one of our most ambitious projects ever.

Ian Blatchford, director of London’s Science Museum

The Tweet had already been re-tweeted more than 4,000 times within 45 minutes. The Queen’s official Twitter account, which is run by royal aides, has issued almost 19,000 messages since its inception. A spoof account - which is very popular - has existed for some time, portraying her as bored with her ministers.