14 TIME May 23/May 30, 2022
SOCIAL MEDIA
How Depp Defenders
Took Over TikTok
BY CHRIS STOKEL-WALKER
their favorite celebrity, or hold onto
a far-of hope that it should actually
be them.”
Besides the viral momentum of a
live news event that many feel they
have a stake in, featuring highly rec-
ognizable celebrities with devoted
fan bases, the Depp-Heard trial also
taps into a third accelerant to guar-
antee its success: cybersleuthing Tik-
Tok. While the idea of amateur sleuths
using the internet to collaborate on
research projects has been around for
years, the movement has been fueled
by the snackable, immersive nature
of TikTok videos. Perhaps most fa-
mously, TikTok users claim credit for
helping to discover the body of Gabby
Petito after she disappeared in August- TikTok sleuths pored over avail-
able open-source evidence, claiming
that Petito’s i ancé Brian Laundrie was
responsible for her murder.
A similar impetus drove TikTok’s
crowdsourced investigation of West
Elm Caleb, a New York furniture de-
signer alleged to have ghosted several
women—and it appears to be in part
responsible for perpetuating con-
tent around the Depp-Heard trial.
IF YOU’VE OPENED TIKTOK RECENTLY, YOU’LL HAVE
struggled to escape commentary or clips from the defa-
mation trial brought by Johnny Depp against his ex-wife
Amber Heard in a Virginia courtroom.
The trial, over an opinion piece about domestic vio-
lence that Heard wrote for the Washington Post in 2018
in which Depp claims she defamed him, has become un-
avoidable on TikTok. There are regular updates from the
courtroom from both established news outlets and rank-
and-i le users clipping key moments and adding their opin-
ions. Videos tagged with the hashtags #johnnydepp and
#justiceforjohnnydepp have collected billions of views.
Despite no shortage of news happening around the
world, the Depp-Heard trial seems to dominate TikTok—
with most videos supporting Depp and denigrating Heard.
TikTok representatives declined to speak for this story. But
plenty of those who monitor the app have theories as to
why videos supporting Depp have taken over TikTok.
“TikTok is always a great amplii er for cultural mo-
ments,” says Abbie Richards, a research fellow at the Accel-
erationism Research Consortium and a mis- and disinfor-
mation researcher who specializes in how content travels
on TikTok. “If you engage with one video about the topic,
the algorithm learns that you like it and will continue to
feed you similar videos.”
SEVERAL NEWS NETWORKS have hosted TikTok
livestreams covering what unfolds each day in the court-
room, which increases awareness of and engagement with
the trial. That triggers a gold rush for other creators to par-
ticipate in a conversation that appears to be dominating
the app, creating a l ywheel of more content. One of the key
commodities on TikTok is the virality of its memes: users
see a particular type of video, or a certain piece of audio,
and produce something similar in order to try and capitalize
on its popularity. In this instance, the trial itself has become
a meme. “Whether you are part of Depp’s fan base or not,
the rush to join the conversation about Depp is highly moti-
vated by algorithmic amplii cation and the golden ticket to
the For You page,” says Tom Divon, visual- communication
researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
There’s also the fact that Depp is highly beloved by his
digital fan base. “What we’re seeing at play in the anger
against Amber Heard has a couple of layers,” says Georgie
Carroll, an Australian academic who studies the relation-
ship between online creators and their audience. “This is
not something that’s representative of all fans or fandom,
but we do always see a certain level of dislike and distrust
leveled against the partners of popular male celebrities.
Fans often think a female partner isn’t ‘good enough’ for
TIKTOK DEFENSE
Johnny Depp’s
fans are l ooding
TikTok with videos
supporting the star
and denigrating his
ex-wife Amber HeardTHE BRIEF ESSAY
TIKTOKS, FROM TOP: @JCDEPPII, @SLYTHERINITIS, @MCULOKII, @ITSKRISTINA_X/TIKTOK; PHONE: GETTY IMAGES; DEPP: STEVE HELBER—POOL/AFP/GETTY IMAGES