Controversy over Queen's 'first tweet' at London's Science Museum

Queen Elizabeth II was said to have "joined the social media age" with the tweet - but by all accounts she didn't write it herself

Queen Elizabeth II sent what was billed as her first official tweet today, opening up the new Information Age exhibition at London’s science museum.

The tweet itself has already received a flurry of attention, with more than eight thousand retweets and seven thousand favourites – but some have questioned where or not it was actually sent by the Queen.

Pictures of the momentous event show the Queen using an iPad to send the tweet but Twitter’s internal records suggest it was sent using an iPhone.

Speaking to The Verge however, a spokesperson insisted than any mobile involvement was simply “processology” – while pictures posted on Twitter itself apparently show a volunteer who prepared the Queen’s iPad and typed out the message for her.

Whether or not the Queen actually ‘sent’ the tweet then looks to be one of those conundrums that will puzzle society for generations to come (it’s right up there with the famous ‘can a monkey own copyright?’ head-scratcher).

Still, at least the Queen has some form in this department, as museum director Ian Blatchford pointed out in a statement. “I mentioned earlier that Queen Victoria took a great interest in the invention of the telephone, and Your Majesty has followed in this tradition of embracing new technology,” he reportedly told her.