It is already being dubbed “Twittergate”. The internet communication craze that has swept the world has caused a political furore in Germany, where the country’s parliamentary elders will on Thursday launch a probe into twittering MPs who broke decades of tradition and leaked news of the president’s re-election.

The probe, which has already led one MP to resign from a parliamentary post, underscores the rapid spread of 140 character “tweets”, which are growing in popularity at a faster rate than social networking site Facebook.