[Jordan.]

Former 1D member appeared to criticise Swift’s withdrawal from streaming services, prompting her superstar DJ boyfriend to weigh in

It was the perfect storm of celebrity social media, so perfect that it might have been scripted. Two A-list pop stars? Check. Arguing about Taylor Swift? Check. Involving bitterness between present and former members of One Direction? Check. And did Nicki Minaj get involved? Check. In fact, the only thing missing from the Twitter spat between Zayn Malik and Calvin Harris was Azealia Banks weighing in.

The row began with Malik retweeting a post from another user entirely (a retweet he has since deleted), which contrasted two quotes from Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus, the former talking about her pulling her music from Spotify, the latter saying: “I’ve made my money. If no one buys my album, cool. It’s fine. I’ve got a house, and I’ve got dogs that I love. I don’t need anything else.”

That prompted Harris, who is reportedly Swift’s boyfriend, to respond angrily, tweeting to Malik and the original poster his disgust.

That prompted the former 1D star to reply angrily: “ha you just made an absolute fool of yourself mate … you clearly didn’t understand what I just said either.” He then went personal.

Harris became conciliatory at this point, insisting: “all good, it was the quote not you personally mate” and “best of luck, genuinely. You’ve got a great voice.”

Too late, alas, for other members of the celebrity sphere had seen the row, and were metaphorically gathering around, chanting “Fight! Fight! Fight!” Nicki Minaj took sides subtly, favouriting a tweet from a non-celebrity, who had responded to Malik’s insistend that he “writes his own **** too” with the words “oh, damn. alright” and a couple of quizically faced emojis. And Malik’s former 1D bandmate Louis Tomlinson also engaged in some taking-sides-by-favouriting, offering his approval to Harris’s first, angry reply to Malik.

You don’t get 1D and Taylor Swift at the centre of a Twitterstorm every day (it just feels like it), but the row – fortunately – has not yet caused the internet to break.

Zayn continues to make a fool of himself on twitter but I'm here for Taylor and Calvin being dragged, possibly the most pretentious ***** celeb couple around rn