TikTok has become part of my nightly routine. I snuggle up in bed with the covers wrapped around me, adjusting my pillows countless times to make sure that I'm comfy and relax and the soft glow of my fairy-lights twinkling around my room. Once I'm satisfied that I am cozy enough, my phone goes on charge in the socket beside my bed and up comes TikTok. But my 'for you page' is no longer full of memes and random videos that are at least some scale of bizarre: now it's full of court case clips of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard.
The legal battle between the two actors has been going on for years. When Amber Heard filed for divorce in 2016, she accused Johnny Depp of domestic abuse, getting a restraining order against him out of 'fear' of him. He did not fight the restraining order and let things be, with the divorce finalising in 2016.
But this dispute was far from done. Depp faced a lot of speculation within the media world, with fans unsure on whether to believe his denial or the accusations he faced. It never truly went away, always floating around. When Depp joined the magical world in 2016, securing a role as Grindelwald in the Fantastic Beasts franchise, The Sun made the decision to refer to him as a 'wife beater' in the headline of an article in 2017. Depp made the decision to attempt to sue the paper in a libel lawsuit, a trial he would then lose. Since then, the last 5 years has been a journey of legal battles between the two.
Here is the journey that the two actors have been on:
The continuous lawsuits between the two have attracted a lot of attention on social media, especially Twitter and TikTok. The current ongoing trial is the one that really has a lot of speculation surrounding it and the duos relationship. Since the defamation trial against Heard is being televised unlike the libel suit against The Sun in 2020 (due to that one being in the UK and laws surrounding court recording), the public is hearing every detail and every shred of evidence between the pair. The current trial is even being livestreamed on TikTok by ABC News, making it the main social media platform of the trial.
Depp has made his case after he lost major roles due to the speculation surrounding him, being fired from Fantastic Beasts and Disney. His case surrounds the fact he is denying the abuse claims and the 'false allegations' are the reasoning between him losing out on these roles, damaging his public name and saying he has lost 'nothing less than everything' during the previous years.
TikTok has been taken by storm and has had a huge impact on the trial itself for outsiders, and even within the court room. Just yesterday, Heard filed a motion to dismiss the case against her, which was overturned and denied by the judge. However, the lawyers alluded to the social media attraction of the case when arguing each side of the motion. Heard's lawyer made the claim that the speech Depp's lawyer made was 'for an outside audience rather than that of the courtroom' after Depp's lawyer said along the lines of 'the evidence of abuse from the side of Miss Heard is compelling, make her take the stand'. This is because TikTok has been waiting in tension for the day Heard takes the stand after audio evidence has come out with her being quotes to saying 'I didn't punch you, I hit you', which many are seeing as support of her abusing Depp.
Everyone who has been on TikTok over the last few weeks will have surely seen some sort of content around the case. One of the biggest moments would be when Milani came forward and dismissed Heard's claims that she was gifted one of their pallets by Depp to conceal evidence of the abuse as the particular make-up she claimed to use wasn't released until 2017, seemingly having caught her in a lie.
And since then, Depp has taken his place upon the stand, causing even more media attention. It opened up so many different doors for creators on the app. Some users have been trying to give a balanced viewpoint, others circulating evidence from it, and a portion portraying it a mockery, especially surrounding Amber Heard's lawyers and targeting her as 'a liar' in their eyes. It has become even more of a public battle, with highly opinionated creators having their say. With Depp seeming relaxed on the stand, some creators have declared it evidence of his innocence surrounding the allegations.
Tiktok creator making content surrounding the 'mockery' of the trial
The majority of content seems to be centred around humiliating Heard's lawyers, with their objections being laughed up and accused of overusing the word 'hearsay'. Depp's reactions to the questioning he went through has attracted the most attention, with him being seen as almost laughing at them, creators on the app picking up on it and seeing it as him remaining calm and confident in his case.
It comes to the argument that the users are almost trying to take the role of judge and jury in the case, having their views as what they see as right, and possibly even being insensitive to the severity of the case with the attention. Users clearly have their own views, and are flooding the platform with it.
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