The British Press Complaints Commission has received more than 21,000 complaints over an article written in the Daily Maillast week about the death of singer Stephen Gately.
The watchdog's website crashed for several hours on Friday after it was overwhelmed by online traffic driven by growing outrage over the content of the article which was written by columnist Jan Moir.
The British Lesbian and Gay Foundation complained to the Metropolitan police about the opinion piece which appeared in Friday's British edition of the Daily Mail.
"Moir's sweeping generalisations have not only insulted the singer, his partner and his family, but the lesbian, gay, and bisexual community as a whole," said Lesbian & Gay Foundation's chief executive Paul Martin.
The article in question was initially published under the headline "Why there was nothing 'natural' about Stephen Gately's death". This was later changed on the paper's online edition to: "A strange, lonely and troubling death..."
Ms Moir questioned the nature of Stephen Gately's death in her piece which she later claimed was the target of "a heavily orchestrated internet campaign".
"I think if we are going to be honest, we would have to admit that the circumstances surrounding his death are more than a little sleazy," she wrote.
Likening Gately's death to the death of Little Britainstar Matt Lucas' former partner Kevin McGee who was found hanged in his apartment earlier this month, she wrote: "Gay activists are always calling for tolerance and understanding about same-sex relationships, arguing that they are just the same as heterosexual marriages. Not everyone, they say, is like George Michael."
"Of course, in many cases this may be true. Yet the recent death of Kevin McGee, the former husband of Little Britain star Matt Lucas, and now the dubious events of Gately's last night raise troubling questions about what happened."
By Friday evening, several companies including Marks& Spencer and Nestlé had pulled advertising from the website page featuring the article.
A statement issued by the Press Complaints Commission today said the complaints it received over the weekend represented "by far" the highest number of complaints ever received about a single article.
It said it requires the involvement of "directly-affected parties" in its investigations, and confirmed it has "pro-actively" been in touch with representatives of Boyzone who in turn are in contact with the Gately family.
Any complaint from the affected parties will "be given precedence", the statement said.
It said it would write to the Daily Mailto seek a response to the more general complaints before it considers whether further action should be taken.
Jane Moir issued a statement on Friday where she said: "I think it is mischievous in the extreme to suggest that my article has homophobic and bigoted undertones."