{"id":97812,"date":"2022-05-03T22:16:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-03T16:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/johnny-depp-v-amber-heard-inside-the-fan-battle-on-social-media\/"},"modified":"2022-05-03T22:16:00","modified_gmt":"2022-05-03T16:46:00","slug":"johnny-depp-v-amber-heard-inside-the-fan-battle-on-social-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/johnny-depp-v-amber-heard-inside-the-fan-battle-on-social-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard: Inside the Fan Battle on Social Media"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On April 11, Johnny Depp and Amber Heard reported to a Fairfax, Virginia, courtroom for a long-awaited defamation trial that would air all the dirty laundry of their tumultuous marriage. The first three weeks of testimony have offered a cascade of eye-popping revelations, with Heard, through her attorneys, accusing Depp of sexual assault, while one of Depp\u2019s bodyguards testified that he witnessed the actress throw a Red Bull can at her ex as well as punch him in the face. Also laid bare were Depp\u2019s astronomical salaries (including $22.5 million for a would-be <\/span>Pirates of the Caribbean 6<\/span><\/i>) and sordid details of his drug-and-booze benders with famous friends like Marilyn Manson and Paul Bettany.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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But as wild and unpleasant as the proceedings have been, an even uglier shadow war has been raging in the court of public opinion, as the often-toxic fans of both celebrities take to social media and trash the other side. Heard has born the brunt of the vitriol, which ranges from a deluge of posts tagged #JusticeForJohnnyDepp and #freejohnny (who is not currently in jail) to out-and-out death threats. According to a screenshot provided by a source close to Heard, one Twitter user named \u201cchloe\u201d wrote on April 13: \u201cwho wants to join me in my expedition to brutally murder Amber Heard\u201d; another named Nah\u2019 wrote a week later: \u201c#AmberHeard you big bobble head butch I\u2019m coming for you when you get outta court hoe you lying ass big faced butch it\u2019s up.\u201d <\/span>Rolling Stone<\/span><\/i> has viewed the archived tweets, which were both subsequently deleted (both accounts remain active). Similar sentiments are not hard to find. Also on April 13, a user with the handle @histry_huh tweeted: \u201cBrb on my way to go murder Amber Heard that fucking psycho #JusticeForJohnnyDepp.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Even fellow celebrities seem to be entering the fray. On April 20, Depp picked up a new Instagram follower (joining a group 14.4 million strong) in Jason Momoa\u2026 who stars opposite Heard in the <\/span>Aquaman<\/span><\/i> franchise. Team Johnny was quick to read the tea leaves, with a Twitter user named Strawberry Fields opining, \u201cJason Momoa really just said, \u2018justice for Johnny Depp\u2019 by following him on Instagram.\u201d Another chimed in: \u201cHAVE A ROTTEN BIRTHDAY EVIL WITCH\u201d (Heard turned 36 on April 22) and \u201cMay your day be filled lies and violence [sic].\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The hate has become so vehement and depraved \u2014 one Depp fan painted a picture of Heard defecating on the actor\u2019s bed in a macabre interpretation of Depp\u2019s testimony \u2014 that both sides are accusing the other of having fake fan armies. But the reality is far more disturbing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Depp\u2019s fan base has been<\/b> one of Hollywood\u2019s most rabid for years, laying the foundation for a David-versus-Goliath battle during the trial. On TikTok, the #justiceforjohnnydepp tag has more than 6.8 <\/span>billion<\/span><\/i> views, while the #IStandWithAmberHeard tag has just 2.4 million views. On Twitter, some pro-Depp posts have received more likes than Heard\u2019s entire 207,900 following. The lopsided discourse has led to speculation that Depp\u2019s team has been using bots and algorithm manipulation to get an edge. Heard first raised the notion in 2020, in her $100 million countersuit to Depp\u2019s defamation filing, claiming, without evidence, \u201cAs part of his ongoing smear campaign, Mr. Depp and\/or his agents acting on his behalf have directed both authentic and inauthentic social media accounts, and\/or non-human controlled \u2018bots,\u2019 to target Ms. Heard\u2019s Twitter account and attempt to interfere with her [career].\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The suit doubled down on the bot allegation by stating that \u201cmany\u201d pro-Depp accounts included Cyrillic signatures, suggesting Russian origin. It then noted that Adam Waldman, who was on Depp\u2019s legal team at the time, \u201cis publicly associated with Russian individuals with the capability to organize such attacks.\u201d (Waldman once represented Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.) The allegation prompted Waldman to tweet, \u201cIs this a real Counterclaim or am I getting Punk\u2019d?\u201d and to mock Heard\u2019s implication of \u201csome kind of dastardly Cyrillic Russian involvement.\u201d (A fan of Heard\u2019s named Christina Taft also wrote a book promoting this narrative, titled <\/span>Amber Heard vs Johnny Depp & Bots: 21st Century Story: Influence Operations<\/span><\/i> and billed as \u201cinvestigative journalism [that] delves into Julian Assange, Jennifer Robinson, progressives and the alt-right, artificial intelligence, Russia voting interference, Elon Musk, United Nations, and <\/span>Aquaman 2<\/span><\/i>.\u201d)<\/span><\/p>\n

Nearly two years later, the idea persists, as Heard supporters have been plastering cars (including those belonging to jurors) and telephone poles outside the Fairfax County courthouse with fliers that claim Depp operatives are manipulating the social media landscape from YouTube to Reddit.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But Cyabra, a Tel Aviv-based startup that analyzes online conversations and spots disinformation, believes that Depp\u2019s online fan base is overwhelmingly real, at least on Twitter. The company, which is backed by investors like Peter Thiel, and whose clients include the U.S. State Department, studied data on the platform spanning from March 13 \u2014 about a month before the trial kicked off \u2014 through April 25. Scanning relevant keywords and hashtags associated with the couple, Cyabra then examined profiles that participated in the conversations around those phrases. Using proprietary AI, the company identifies fake accounts, the most influential accounts, and the sentiment and \u201cvelocity\u201d of the conversation (how quickly people are tweeting and commenting on a given topic). Synthesizing that data, Cyabra CEO Dan Brahmy tells <\/span>Rolling Stone<\/span><\/i> that \u201cthe majority of the profiles that are on Johnny Depp\u2019s side and support him are real people, almost 95 percent of them. These are genuine people who love Johnny Depp.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Cyabra also studied the activity surrounding competing hashtags like #JusticeForJohnnyDepp and #IStandWithAmberHeard and reported that Depp\u2019s contingent was getting far greater traction than his ex-wife\u2019s, which the firm found to be mostly authentic as well (about 90 percent). The top fan page for Depp received more than 18,000 shares for content containing the hashtag #JusticeForJohnnyDepp and spread to more than 502 million profiles. By contrast, the top fan page praising Heard received only 138 shares and spread to some three million profiles.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Johnny Depp fan messages are able to get around better,\u201d Brahmy adds. \u201cThe difference between the exposure of the pro-Depp to the pro-Amber [content] is more than 100 times.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As for Depp\u2019s fake five percent, Brahmy says that number falls within the three-to-five-percent average on any trending topic, while much of Heard\u2019s bot activity, which Cyabra placed at about 10 percent, appeared to be deployed by uninterested third parties looking to promote a product by glomming on to the hot topic.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the six-week trial enters its second half,<\/b> the cyber-brawl<\/span>\u00a0appears to be escalating. Cyabra found that more than 21,000 Twitter profiles took part in the discourse around the Depp-Heard trial for the week ending April 25, an increase of 588 percent from the week prior. And the anti-Heard rhetoric is only getting nastier. Cyabra identified the most significant increase of negative content surrounding the trial on April 21, a day after Depp testified about an incident in which Heard allegedly severed his finger during a violent argument, resulting in an 819 percent increase in \u201charmful\u201d content against Heard.<\/span><\/p>\n

Still, much of the activity is now taking place on TikTok, which has been flooded with pro-Depp videos. One that went viral, purportedly taken at an L.A.-area Starbucks, showed competing tip jars labeled for the exes, Depp\u2019s full of cash and Heard\u2019s empty. In the wake of the trend, Roslyn Talusan, a culture writer for the AV Club and Vice, has stoked speculation that Depp\u2019s lawyers are somehow able to juice the TikTok algorithm, tweeting, \u201cso many people on here have said tiktok keeps forcing videos from the d*pp trial onto their FYP and i can\u2019t help but wonder how much his legal team paid for that.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A source close to Depp calls that claim absurd and points the finger at Heard\u2019s team. \u201cAs much as Amber\u2019s PR representatives would like to believe that there isn\u2019t any organic, unpaid support for Johnny online, it\u2019s simply not the case,\u201d the source tells <\/span>Rolling Stone<\/span><\/i>. \u201cJohnny\u2019s fans and followers \u2014 new and old \u2014 have rallied around his truth, and not an ounce of that support was paid for.\u201d (Heard, apparently dissatisfied with the job that PR team had been doing, parted ways with them on Sunday.)<\/span><\/p>\n

In response to specific online threats targeting Heard, her legal team has hired a boutique security firm (<\/span>Rolling Stone<\/span><\/i> is withholding the name of the company at its behest), which assessed her safety risk. In an April 24 report dubbed Operation Fairfax, the security firm noted that Depp\u2019s fans, which it referred to as cult followers, could become more brazen and reckless in the coming days and that Heard\u2019s in-person security personnel should change up routines and stay alert.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The concern is real enough that two Depp stans \u2014 Brooke Walsh (@depplyhallows) and Isabelle Orsini (@Izze1122) \u2014 were booted from the courtroom on April 13 and 14, respectively, after Heard\u2019s legal team raised their unsettling social media footprints. According to a screenshot provided by a source close to Heard, Walsh tweeted in 2016, \u201cI Can\u2019t Wait For The Day I Kill Amber Heard,\u201d while Orsini revealed to her Twitter followers the name of the London hotel Heard was staying at in 2021.<\/span><\/p>\n

Not to be outdone, Depp\u2019s team successfully pushed to have Heard supporter and music journalist Eve Barlow barred from the courtroom after they accused the writer of live-tweeting during testimony. \u201cThe social media landscape is shockingly brutal for Amber, with TikTok and Twitter especially prone to spreading disinformation and misogynist hate,\u201d Barlow tells <\/span>Rolling Stone<\/span><\/i>. \u201cThe live broadcast of this trial is highly dehumanizing, and has resulted in obsessional nit-picking by Depp fans over Amber\u2019s wardrobe every day, and her facial expressions, while Depp sits in court smiling, doodling, and laughing with his counsel, backed by an army of vocal Twitter fans who are [sometime seated] in the public gallery.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While some close to the case, including former Heard attorney Roberta Kaplan, have maintained their belief that fake accounts amplify support for Depp, there\u2019s no denying the virulence of the commentary it\u2019s generated. As Kaplan told <\/span>The Hollywood Reporter<\/span><\/i> in 2020, \u200b\u200b\u201cMy firm is involved in a lot of controversial cases. Our clients are suing the white supremacists and neo-Nazis responsible for the violence in Charlottesville. I have clients who are suing Donald Trump. But, by far, the one case [of ours] that has generated the greatest amount of hostile social media attacks is Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard. Not even close.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And though the ominous notion of bots and AI-driven treachery have become a powerful motif in a popular culture obsessed with conspiracies, in the case of Johnny v. Amber, the simpler explanation for the mud-slinging may prove to be more accurate: Humans \u2014 especially hyper-passionate fandoms operating from the safe confines of their own phones and computers \u2014 are perfectly capable of being bad actors all on their own.<\/span><\/p>\n

Will the deafening chatter have any effect in the courtroom as the trial continues to unfold? That remains to be seen. \u201cThe right answer is no, it shouldn\u2019t,\u201d says attorney Kimberly Lau, who specializes in harassment and assault suits and is a libel and slander suit expert. \u201cBut realistically, it may. The lawyers certainly could be influenced by what they\u2019re seeing [on social media] and adjust their trial strategy and how they advise their respective clients to appear in court. So, it shouldn\u2019t influence the trial, theoretically, but I think it\u2019s impossible to eradicate all of that influence, especially in this high profile of a trial.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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On April 11, Johnny Depp and Amber Heard reported to a Fairfax, Virginia, courtroom for a long-awaited defamation trial that would air all the dirty laundry of their tumultuous marriage. The first three weeks of testimony have offered a cascade of eye-popping revelations, with Heard, through her attorneys, accusing Depp of sexual assault, while one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":97813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101,3,105,106],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Johnny-Depp-v-Amber-Heard-Inside-the-Fan-Battle-on.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97812"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}