Of all the defamation allegations against Johnny Depp and Amber Heard over six weeks, one of the most memorable came from social media.
On May 5, the Internet exploded with online detectives claiming to have caught Amber Heard sniffing cocaine at a witness stand in a Fairfax court in Virginia.
Short videos of the Aquaman actress blowing her nose with a handkerchief during a break in her testimony in court began to circulate.
“Amber Heard sniffing Coca-Cola at the booth is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen,” one person signed a YouTube video that garnered more than 23,000 views.
Millions watched and shared the videos on various social media channels, with a single video on TikTok showing that she was “taking a hit”, surpassing more than 38 million views and six million likes by May 25th.
What seems to have been lost on the attention of those involved in the indictment – apart from the fact that everyone entering the courtroom has been screened for smuggling, not to mention the absolute likelihood that we are accused in a $ 50 million case of abuse. Drugs is the center of action taking drugs while their testimonies are watched live by millions around the world – it was the reason she wiped her face with wipes.
During testimony that day, Ms. Hurd described in graphic detail a brutal alleged case of sexual violence and one of her most humiliating allegations against her ex-husband, Johnny Depp.
In tears, she testified that Mr Depp raped her with a bottle of alcohol during a violent incident in Australia in 2015.
She told the court how she was pressed over a bar while a glass bottle was inserted into her body.
She sobbed as she described how she felt “this pressure on my pubic bone” and at first thought she was being hit.
And she talked about the horror as she lay and prayed that the glass inside her would not be broken.
But that testimony was missing from short videos circulating online under hashtags like #amberheardisaliar and #justiceforjohnnydepp.
In a case where both ex-spouses have raised serious allegations of domestic violence against each other and where tens of millions of dollars have been pledged, social media is increasingly hijacking proceedings.
Online mania raises a worrying question: does the sentence really matter?
Actor Amber Heard testified in court on May 5
(AP)
“Social media has armed this process,” Evan Nirman, CEO of Red Banyan Crisis PR and author of Crisis Averted, told The Independent.
“More people draw conclusions about guilt or innocence based on online curated content than courtroom facts.
“And that could have serious consequences for all of us moving forward.”
Strange fandom and viral videos
The internet craze for the case ranges from everything from weird conspiracies to fandom to memes and outright lies.
When Ms. Hurd first climbed, the conspiracy theory went viral, according to which the opening lines of her testimony were stolen from the 1999 film The Talented Mr. Ripley – with Ms. Hurd simply changing the name of the chief hero with “Johnny”.
The claim was easily debunked, but not before it gained popularity on Twitter and Facebook.
This came after another strange claim at the beginning of the trial that Ms. Hurd was deliberately copying Mr. Depp’s wardrobe choices, with social media users pointing to a bee needle in her shirt that wears her hair in a ponytail.
Her appearance became a source of online ridicule last week, when thousands posted or shared photos comparing her outfit to that of Austin Powers’ villain, Dr. Evil.
Other clips from courtroom testimony are also transforming into TikTok trends.
TikTok users became obsessed with a specific passage from Ms. Hurd’s testimony on May 4, where she told the court that “my dog stepped on a bee” and then flinched.
This single phrase – which was part of her account of a day when she and Mr. Depp allegedly got into a fierce battle – gave rise to a viral trend of people combining her testimony with videos in which they rhyme themselves with phrases and imitate her trembling.
“My father has to pee” and “my mother crashed into a tree” were just some of the rhymes.
There are also viral videos of Mr Depp – although rather than mockery, many include mockery of his actions in and out of court, such as a video of him pulling a chair for his lawyer and another where he entertains fans outside. , performing his Captain Jack Sparrow voice.
One video of the latter exceeded one million views on Twitter.
Google Trends shows online search for trial
(Google Trends)
Meanwhile, a strange online band for the show’s popular stars has appeared, namely the lawyer of Mr. Depp, Camille Vazquez.
Fan pages for the lawyer have appeared on social media, and online demand for the lawyer has increased by 4,350 percent in the last month, according to Google Trends.
Ms Vazquez also does not seem to be afraid of attention, as after Mr Depp’s fans defended her online, videos of her greeting from alpacas appeared, which some fans brought to the courtroom.
Jury on social networks
Overall, online obsession with the process has increased, with experts comparing it to the OJ Simpson process from the social media era.
Global interest in the search peaked on May 17, when Mr. Depp’s lawyers completed their cross-examination of Ms. Hurd, according to Google Trends.
This is a mania that is clearly distorted in favor of Mr Depp.
While many of the most sought-after questions for both parties are about who wins the process, when their age or wealth will end, there are some differences.
“Is Amber Heard lying?” ranked fifth in the most frequently asked questions about Ms. Hurd in the last 12 months.
In contrast, the fifth ranked question for Mr. Depp during the same period was, “How tall is Johnny Depp?”
The two stars’ popular hashtags also tell a similar story about how social media users are mostly from Depp’s team.
The TikTok hashtag #johnnydeppisinnocent had 4.9 billion uses as of May 25, while #justiceforjohnnydepp had 15.7 billion uses.
Such hashtags in support of Ms. Hurd had only a small share of use, with justiceforamberheard accumulating 52.1 million uses, while #amberheardisinnocent had only 4.1 million.
Meanwhile, #Amberturd had three billion uses.
It seems that the jurors on social media have already taken their verdict in the case.
And many of them attract followers in the process.
TikTok user cbatogivename told The Independent that he did not see himself as a fan of Mr Depp, but was definitely on his side in the defamation lawsuit.
“If he was in London, I wouldn’t go and see him, but I support him as he is,” she said.
“She looks like a gentle soul.”
The Surrey woman from England, who chose not to publish her real name, is one of many TikTok users who have gained huge followers since they began posting a pro-Depp coverage of the process on the platform.
She watched the trial all day every day from the beginning and constantly noticed some “comic moments” in the courtroom.
“Obviously this is a very serious topic, but in fact sometimes I burst out laughing at things that are happening in court,” she said.
Then, on April 27, she posted one such moment on TikTok.
This was a video showing Mr Depp helping to free a laptop cable for Mrs Vazquez, with the caption: “Little Things”.
The video quickly reached 5.5 million views. As of May 25, there are 12.9 million views and one million likes.
“I didn’t expect it to explode,” she said.
“Everyone commented on it, telling us give it more and more.”
And so she did.
Since then, her account has been dedicated to the process, and her followers have jumped from 206 to 173,000 in just three weeks.
To date, her most popular video has more than 29 million views.
Prior to the trial, she said her best videos on TikTok had about 8,000 views.
She reduces the online fascination with the process to the status of the former A-list couple and the fact that the case gives “an in-depth look at someone’s life you’ve never been able to look at before.”
For cbatogivename, she had already decided which side she was on long before the trial began in early April.
And it was social media that made her side with Mr. Depp.
Mr Depp has filed a defamation lawsuit in the UK against The Sun over an article calling him a “woman beater”. He lost the case in 2020.
“He really lost, which was unfortunate, but a lot has happened on social media since then,” says cbatogivename.
“People discovered the subtleties and the videos, and you somehow saw a different person than the one the media portrayed.
Danny the dog in front of the courthouse on May 26 in support of Johnny Depp
(The Independent)
As far as cbatogivename is concerned, TikTok is essentially “a whole network of investigators and lawyers” who have dug into the case and found details that discredit Ms Hurd’s allegations.
Although she revealed that she was facing some reaction to her TikToks from Ms. Hurd’s fans, she said it was rare.
But the same cannot be said for social media users who are on the other side of the case, she said.
“Nine times out of 10, if someone says something pro-Amber, there will be a backlash from people who disagree,” she said.
Victory in the court of public opinion
The multimillion-dollar jury may begin the debate as early as Friday, after Ms. Hurd’s and Mr. Depp’s teams deliver closing arguments in court.
But based on the online circus around the case, has Mr. Depp already won the real battle in the court of public opinion?
“Ironically, Amber Heard’s reputation was slandered during a defamation trial,” sociologist and sexual violence researcher Nicole Beder told The Independent.
“Regardless of the result of …
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