UK GOV / GETTY The controversial petition had 40,000 signatories from the Vatican City

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The government petition, which was manipulated by a ‘bot’ to add thousands of fake signatures every minute, has now reached nearly four million. An inquiry by the Petitions Committee has already removed 77,000 names which it said were added “fraudulently” - with tens of thousands electronically registered to some suspect internet domains. It's been reported 42,000 signatories were registered to the Vatican City, a walled enclave in Rome that is the smallest state in the world by both size and population.

The Pitcairn Islands, a remote collection of islands in the Pacific Ocean with a population of just 56, also had a huge number of signatories. North Korea, too, had almost 25,000 names on the list - despite the blanket internet censorship in place in the hermit state. Hackers admitted rigging the petition to show “your democracies are a joke.”

GETTY The Vatican city is home to less than 1,000 people, who are mostly clergy members of Swiss Guards

One said he hoped the Vatican City names would outnumber its actual population for "pure bants". A user on the infamous internet for 4Chan admitted orchestrating the sabotage after another noted the petition was rising “literally at 10,000 new votes per minute.” The hacker said: “That was all me. I voted 33,000 times. Left a script running while I was taking a shower.” The anonymous person sarcastically added: “Online petitions are clearly very reliable and not at all able to be tampered with.” Remain campaigners have also been compromising the legitimacy of the petition by encouraging people living abroad to sign it - despite rules only allowing people with a British postcode to vote.

UK GOV The petition for a second EU referendum has been signed by nearly four million people

GETTY Remain campaigners have been protesting against the 52 to 48 per cent Leave victory

One Twitter user said: “It will ask for your postcode to ensure you are a UK citizen, just use mine: BR8 7RZ.” Another user, whose Twitter handle is “Vote Remain”, posted: “If you’re not British, sign this petition anyway pls and DM for a postcode.” Along with an emoji of a crying face, she added: “We’re desperate #VoteRemain.”