Twitter saw a large spike in users with up to 5,000 Jackson-related messages being posted per minute, which slowed the service's speed.
Soon after news of his death emerged Jackson-related topics dominated Twitter's list of most popular subjects being discussed on the site.
Michael Jackson is dead: memorabilia put on eBay Biz Stone, co-founder of the messaging site, said: "This particular news about the passing of such a global icon is the biggest jump in tweets per second since the U.S. presidential election.”
Facebook saw a similar response, with the number of postings tripling during the hour after news of Jackson's death broke, according to a spokesman.
Several Facebook pages dedicated to the King of Pop, such as Michael Jackson RIP and R.I.P. Michael Jackson (We Miss You), were started and attracted well over 100,000 members in a matter of hours.
Postings poured in from fellow musicians, actors and even politicians.
Jane Fonda, the Oscar-winning actress, wrote: "I am stunned. My friend, Michael Jackson is dead."
P Diddy, the rapper, wrote: "Michael Jackson showed me that you can actually see the beat. He made the music come to life!! He made me believe in magic. I will miss him."
David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, posted on Twitter: "Never has one soared so high and yet dived so low. RIP Michael"
Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia, was brought to a halt by the surge in people searching for news on the singing phenomenon, with a number of contributors posting conflicting reports of his condition for a short time.
Google, the search engine, also encountered problems for a time due to the demand. So many people wanted to verify early reports of his death that computers running Google's news section interpreted the "Michael Jackson" requests as an automated attack for about half an hour.
Soon his death was dominating the top 10 list of Google Trends, which monitors web searches, with up to seven of the slots dedicated to Jackson subjects at one time.
The internet also began to run wild with incorrect rumours - such as the entirely incorrect news that Jeff Goldblum, the actor, had died while filming in New Zealand. At one stage "Jeff Goldblum dead" was the third most popular search term on Google.
Jackson's death has also resulted in a spike in commercial activity related to the star, with a surge of people trying to sell items on eBay, and a big rise in people downloading his tracks off music sites like iTunes.
Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation Mourns the Loss of Michael Jackson
Nation's Leading Cause of Death Reportedly Claims the Life of a Pop Icon
PITTSBURGH, June 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation joins millions in grieving the loss of pop icon Michael Jackson. His apparent death from sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is a painful reminder that SCA is a leading cause of death worldwide.
"While this tragic loss may have been unexpected, sadly, sudden cardiac arrest is not uncommon," said Bobby Khan, MD, Chairman of the SCA Foundation Board of Directors, Fulbright Scholar, Associate Professor at Emory University and Director of the Coronary Care Unit and Cardiovascular Research at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. "Sudden cardiac arrest can happen to men, women and children of all ages, and for many reasons. African Americans are at even higher risk."
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