THE social media site Twitter is under fire in Scotland after it emerged racist abuse of a Scottish Government minister has remained in place for over a week despite demands for it to be removed.

Complaints were made to Twitter and the police about the abuse which targeted the Scottish Government's minister for Europe and external affairs Humza Yousaf.

It came after Yousaf published a message on the social media site on March 12 describing the BBC coverage of Jeremy Clarkson as "navel gazing".

A reply from Braydoe - @AcuraBray - replied: "Your a p***. Don't tell us white guys what we can and can't do."

The minister said he would be reporting the matter to the police, and copied in @policescotland into his comments.

Braydoe responded: "What a lad. Love a bit of police action!" He added: "Bloody hell I'm sh***ing myself. "

The matter was reported to Twitter by users.

One complainer said they had not received any response while the racist comments remain in full public view.

"I've reported on behalf of folk being harassed before and never got a message," said one complainer. "I saw racist abuse, I reported it and moved on. No contact since."

Police Scotland confirmed they are investigating, saying: "Police are aware of comments directed towards Humza Yousaf on social media and are conducting inquiries into the circumstances."

The @AcuraBray troll, who cites his location as London, has form for online abuse.

In a tweet on the same day directed at BBC News political editor Nick Robinson stated: "I'll show you what's what c**t.

And another directed at Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party also attacked Britons of Pakistani heritage, saying: "Do me and United Kingdom a favour sir. Get rid of p****!

The incident highlights continuing concern over the policing of Twitter and comes after an SNP member who subjected Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson to homophobic abuse on Twitter was suspended from the party.

Davidson, an openly gay politician, was sent a tweet on March 18 posted under the Twitter profile Laird O'Callaghan, under the username @SparkyBhoyHH and which made obscene references to her sexuality. The Sunday Herald contacted SparkyBhoyHH who has since changed his Twitter name.

He declined a full interview but said: "I feel ill. I suffer depression and anxiety, all this attention is killing me ...It was a foolish drunken comment."

Jennifer Perry, chief executive of Digital Trust, which supports victims of all forms of digital abuse said Twitter's automated system for complaints is "inadequate" with restrictions over what can be reported, and no way of putting into context patterns of behaviour.

She said: "It is beyond most people's comprehension how many of these incidents are happening on a daily basis. Freedom of speech does not allow you to commit a criminal offence.

"On abuse, if they did more analysis, they would be able to track that type of person. They have the technology, they understand behavioural analysis using data, they do it all the time for advertisers, they just don't do it for abuse victims.

"I think they have tried to make it a global system for dealing with complaints, so what will be illegal in one country won't be in another. But they operate within the EU, and they make money there and my view is there is a technology solution to that, and they just have to implement it.

"They need to put in a much deeper level of options in the reporting, so individuals can get more distressing cases brought to their attention.

"The issue is abuse is seen as a loss leader. It doesn't make money. So anything put into abuse is taken off the bottom line. There is no motivation financially and not enough compulsion by government or the public to do something like that.

"What it means for the victim is they either endure it or come off Twitter, which is not desirable."

Last month, Twitter's chief executive Dick Costolo said in an internal memo that the social media company should be embarrassed by the way it handles abuse.

"We suck at dealing with abuse and trolls on the platform and we've sucked at it for years," he said. "It's no secret and the rest of the world talks about it every day.

"We lose core user after core user by not addressing simple trolling issues that they face every day.

"I'm frankly ashamed of how poorly we've dealt with this issue during my tenure as CEO. It's absurd. There's no excuse for it. I take full responsibility for not being more aggressive on this front. It's nobody else's fault but mine, and it's embarrassing."

Yousaf said: "Abuse of any kind is unacceptable and we all have a responsibility to confront it when we see it - including on Twitter. We saw another instance of deplorable abuse last week on Twitter, directed against Ruth Davidson.

"I hope that Twitter as an organisation will take swift action on this specific case, but also look at what else it can do to ensure that abuse more generally is dealt with as quickly as possible."

The Sunday Herald contacted Twitter over the Yousaf and Davidson cases but they failed to reply.