COULD THIS sweet-sounding Canadian tween sensation be responsible for slowing down the internet, Google searches or even causing those regular Twitter timeouts? According to some well-placed sources, Bieber fever is gripping the net, so much so that now racks of servers across the world are dedicated to allowing fans access Bieber on demand.

“Beliebers” as his fans are called, have ensured that his duet with Ludacris, “Baby”, has been seen by over 317m people, allowing Bieber to surpass Lady Gaga and become the star of the most seen video in YouTube history.

Google, too, has been consumed by searches for Bieber and a US blogger Dustin Curtis tweeted this week: “At any moment, Justin Bieber uses 3 per cent of our infrastructure. Racks of servers are dedicated to him.”

Twitter has claimed that at peak Bieber hours, he is mentioned 60 times every second.

But the news isn’t all good for Bieber. Hackers aren’t happy with the bandwidth the star is taking up and some have suggested flooding Google with searches such as “Justin Bieber takes oestrogen pills” so that it appears on the site’s Hot Searches list. YouTube has also been hacked, with those looking for Bieber redirected to adult content instead – an irony considering it was on Youtube that Bieber was first discovered in 2007.