A public petition for the British government not to go through with Brexit gained so many signatures that the Parliament website crashed on Thursday.
“We're very sorry that the site is still experiencing problems. We are working urgently to get it back up and running as soon as possible,” the Parliament's petitions committee said in a tweet.
The petition called for Prime Minister Theresa May to revoke Article 50 and keep the UK in the European Union. Article 50 is a statute in European law that begins a withdrawal process from the international bloc. For the first time ever, The article was invoked by the UK on March 29, 2017, less than a year after voters chose to leave.
The petitions committee said that between 80,000 and 100,000 people have been simultaneously viewing the petition and nearly 2,000 signatures are being submitted every minute.
The total number of signatures surpassed 1 million before the site crashed Thursday afternoon local time, according to the BBC. Throughout the day, #RevokeA50Now was trending on Twitter and anti-Brexit lawmakers in Parliament were urging constituents to continue the petition campaign, once the site is back up.
The petition was signed by prominent supporters of the “remain” side of the debate, such as actor Hugh Grant and signer Annie Lennox.
“Worth a shot...” Game of Thrones actor Daniel Portman said on Twitter as he urged his followers to sign.
The site crashed as Prime Minister May was in Brussels trying to persuade European officials to delay the UK’s withdrawal beyond the March 29 deadline.
The request came after the British Parliament rejected yet another Brexit proposal last week, setting the stage for the UK to leave the EU without a formal agreement.
