Twitter erupted in celebration today as users of the microblogging site claimed victory after a short but furious campaign against London's most famous libel lawyers.

The campaign was prompted by a report last night on The Guardian website cryptically announcing that the newspaper was legally barred from giving any details of a particular parliamentary question published in yesterday's Commons order papers.

The only thing it was allowed to divulge was the name of the law firm involved - Carter-Ruck - which was enough to set off an avalanche of speculation and to allow bloggers to find and republish the parliamentary question, from a Labour MP to the Justice Secretary Jack Straw.

Thousands of Twitter users joined in too, including tweeter-in-chief Stephen Fry, and the terms "Carter-Ruck" and "Trafigura" - the Swiss-based commodities trader they represent - went straight to the top of Twitter's "trending topics" list.

Many of the tweets linked to leaked documents referring to Trafigura's alleged involvement in the dumping of toxic slops in the Ivory Coast in 2006.

Others linked to a Google Maps page pinpointing Carter-Ruck's offices, where a demonstration was to be organised against the gagging order.

"Wow," said one Twitterer among the deluge of comments. "Never heard of Trafigura before today."

The Liberal Democrats joined the campaign. Nick Clegg, the party leader, tweeted: “Very interested concerned about this #trafigura / Guardian story the @LibDems are planning to take action on this.”

Within hours, the gagging order had been dropped.

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