Amber Heard and Johnny Depp - trial by TikTok
Johnny Depp has won his defamation case against ex-wife Amber Heard, whom he sued over claims of domestic abuse.
The number of people who watch TV news each evening in America is about 18 million. The number of views of videos on TikTok with the hashtag #justiceforjohnnydepp is, at the time of this writing, about 18 billion. The trial between two Hollywood actors - Johnny Depp and Amber Heard - turned warring ex-spouses is a reminder that when it comes to certain stories, the idea of a mass media or a mainstream media dominated by a few major news organisations is beginning to look a bit creaky. It is also, for some, deeply troubling.
And from its early days, it was clear the overwhelming weight of online traffic was siding with Johnny Depp and deeply suspicious of Amber Heard. The level of doubt in polling, and from even the most cursory search of social media, was in direct contradiction of the previous libel trial in the UK, where the allegations that Ms Heard suffered domestic abuse were judged to be "substantially true".
The way her testimony and character has been vilified in the US trial has alarmed domestic violence campaigners.
The jury found Heard defamed her ex-husband in a 2018 Washington Post article in which she wrote about being 鈥渁 public figure representing domestic abuse鈥�. Depp was awarded $10m (拢8m) in compensatory damages and $5m in punitive damages. The jury also found that Johnny Depp defamed Amber Heard - but it was through his attorney, Adam Waldman, and only in one of three counts. She was awarded $2 million in compensatory damages and nothing in punitive damages.
But there have been essentially two cases here - one decided by a jury and another by the public. For 5 Minutes On, our Arts Correspondent, David Sillito, looks at who is generating all this online traffic - and what effect it's had.
Image Credit: Jim Lo Scalzo and Steve Helber via Getty
