Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson
Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik got in a Twitter feud on Wednesday that divided the One Direction fandom.
It all began with a tweet from producer Naughty Boy, who shared a photo of himself with former One Directioner Malik with the caption “Replace this.”
Two hours later, Tomlinson took a thinly veiled jab at his former bandmate and Naughty Boy, tweeting, “Remember when you were 12 and you used to think those Mac filters for your pictures were cool haha! Some people still do HA!” Naughty Boy quickly responded, criticizing Tomlinson’s singing ability. “@Louis_Tomlinson and some people can’t even sing…but who’s complaining when there’s auto tune eh,” he wrote.
Once Naughty Boy went negative, the gloves were off, and Tomlinson fired back, accusing the producer of taking advantage of Malik’s fame, writing, “How does it feel to be riding on the back of someone else’s career?”
Malik then got involved, tweeting Tomlinson directly. “@Louis_Tomlinson remember when you had a life and stopped making bitchy comments about mine?” he wrote.
Needless to say, the One Direction fandom exploded with anger. And, while a few fans vowed to stay by Malik’s side, most were squarely on #TeamLouis. Malik reportedly lost a large number of Twitter followers following his comments, and fans got #TomlinsonSlaysAgain trending worldwide to show their support.
As fans continued to take sides – #TeamZayn vs. #TeamLouis – #ZaynUnfollowed also began trending. Fans may have been ready to support Malik for leaving One Direction to have a “normal” life, and they may have been willing to turn a blind eye when Malik released new music – launching a solo career he claimed he didn’t want – but it seems Malik’s mean-spirited tweet was one step too far for his die hard fans.
The intense backlash had Malik defending himself again on Twitter, trying to do damage control with fans. Wednesday night, he tweeted, “Don’t know why I’m being attacked for defending myself, people got it twisted! I love my fans?! Every single one of you x”
Tomlinson also reached out to fans on Twitter after the Twitter war ended on Thursday, writing, “Our fans support really has been a different class! Huge love to you guys!!”
One Direction members Harry Styles, Nial Horan and Liam Payne have not commented on the Twitter conflict.
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