The Amber Heard v Johnny Depp trial may be over, but the online harassment continues

You will probably remember that earlier this summer, a jury determined that actor Amber Heard was liable for defaming Johnny Depp ed published in The Washington Post where she said that she became quote a public figure representing domestic abuse, even though she never publicly named Johnny Depp as her abuser.

Earlier this summer, Depth supporters crowd funded thousands of dollars to unseal some six thousand documents, which contain evidence that lawyers for both Depth and Heard were able to keep out of the trial itself. Now, the idea here was for Depth supporters to publish new dirt on herd, but it seems like it potentially has backfired because the documents include some pretty unflattering information about Johnny Depp and paint a clearer portrait of how his legal team worked to

weaponize misogyny against Amber Heard during the trial. For instance, previously sealed pre trial documents show that Herd's lawyers argued that Dep's team was trying to introduce nude images of Amber Heard into evidence and include Amber's work as an exotic dancer years before she ever met Johnny Depp, and that Mr Depp was quote attempting to frivolously and maliciously suggest or imply that Misheard was at one time an escort. The unsealed documents also show some of the evidence that

Depth's legal team worked to exclude. The Daily Beast reports that this includes testimony from actor Ellen Barkin, who claimed that Johnny Depp angrily threw a bottle in her direction when they were dating, and testimony from Dr David Spiegel as like Hiatrist, who testified on behalf of her about

the alleged trauma inflected by Depp. They're also pretty awful text between Depp and his friend actor Paul Pattaney, where Bettaney suggested that they submit her to a quote drowning test to determine whether or not she's a witch, to which Johnny Depp replied, let's drown her before we burn her and then goes into some pretty disgusting commentary about

her corporates, which I won't get into here. The unsealed documents also included audio of herd telling depth quote, I had dumped you a fucking week week prior after you beat the ship out of me. There is a lot more there, so I'll link to the full Daily Beast article that did a great job breaking down the unsealed documents in the show notes. So, when the results of the trial were first announced earlier this summer, many celebrities showed support for Johnny Depp by liking his celebratory post

on Instagram. But now some of those same celebrities, including folks like Kelly Berry and Bella Hadid, have quietly unliked that post. Now this could signal that there's a shift in public opinion happening in light of the unsealed files. Anecdotally, I can definitely tell you that TikTok used to be absolutely flooded with pro Johnny death means and compilations. I seriously could not escape them, no matter how many times

I told TikTok that I wasn't interested. But recently I've actually started seeing more content that is sympathetic to amber Heard on the platform, So the trial may be over for now and less amber Heard's team appeals, and public opinion maybe shifting. What does this mean for the people and brands who made platforms off of following and recapping

the trial. You might recall that in our previous episode about the trial, we specifically talked about the cottage industry of people and brands who have built platforms and gotten lots of engagement from the trial. Like on Etsy, there's an entire thriving industry of sellers who make and sell memorabilia related to the trial. This one is really gross,

so trigger warning. Amber her testified that she was sexually assaulted with a bottle, and a sex toy company called Twisted Fantasies created a liquor bottle shaped like a sex toy, which they posted on their social media alongside the caption quote reach a new depth with the new Amber's Mark

liquor bottle. People were understandably sickened and outraged, and the company apologized if survivors were upset, but more or less stood by what they did, releasing a statement saying the sex toy had been a tongue in cheek way to

support Johnny Depp. And I know I talked about this in that initial episode, but I just find the mem ification of a trial that, at its heart, regardless of how you look at it, is about domestic violence, and I just found that to be a little bit gross, and I think it sends a clear signal to survivors of domestic violence that you could be turned into a national joke if people think you're lying. It's not just brands who are getting in on ripping about the trial.

It's creators too. YouTubers and TikTokers that popped up solely to create commentary on the Amber heard Johnny depp defamation trial exploded in popularity during the trial, So people have been able to build entire lucrative platforms off of this one trial. And that's really what I want to talk about today. So a lot of this reporting comes from Cat ten Barge, an Internet reporter at NBC who has done a great job of covering the case and its

online fallout. She writes that some YouTubers and content creators amassed millions of views by covering the trial from a pro depth point of view, as pro herd creators have received more attention. Over time, creators have become more adversarial toward one another, extending the culture war sparked by the Herd Depth legal battle. And that is exactly what is

happening here. So, someone who uses the pseudonym Camilla on Twitter runs a Twitter account that regularly posts viral threads of evidence against Johnny Depp and other celebrities accused of

domestic violence. Camilla's real identity is not known. She's anonymous to text her privacy Laura but Covin, who calls herself a truth seeker and a quote internet journalist, runs a Twitter account with seventy thousand followers and a popular YouTube channel dedicated to supporting Depth and creating pro Depth viral content.

During the trial, cat ten Bart at NBC reports that some of Laura's tweets about the trial received more than twenty five thousand likes, and her YouTube video was about Depth's legal cases, have more than three hundred and seventy thousand combined views. She was also in contact with Depth's team before the trial. So stick with me here because

this is where stuff gets a little bit complicated. Last week, Laura tweeted at Camilla and applying that Camilla wasn't just someone following the trial and tweeting about how they thought Johnny Depp was an abuser. Laura accused Camilla of actually being a paid member of Amber Herd's PR team. Laura tweeted quote is this you and linked to a Deadline article about the hiring of Chrysanto White at Shane Communications, a firm contracted by Amber her to manage her PR. Now,

Camilla outright didn't noted that she was Crysanta. So Chrysanta is a person who actually exists, and she actually does work for Shame Communications, the firm retained by Amber Heard. But Chrysanta says she doesn't do social media for them and staid she works in diversity and inclusion. So what evidence is there that Camilla is actually Chrysanta, a paid hill for Amber Heard? Well, Camilla's Twitter account uses the image of a cartoon black woman with natural hair, and

Chrysanta is a black woman with natural hair. Also, on Chrysanta's Pinterest account, she has pinned illustrations of black women with natural hair. And that's pretty much where the evidence ends. That's pretty much it. Let's take a quick break at

her back. So we were talking about how Laura, a pro Johnny Depp content creator, accused an anonymous Twitter account using the pseudonym Camilla of actually being Chrysanta White, a black woman who works for the company that Amber heard retained for PR services, just because seemingly they are both black women. Now, Laura may have just tweeted out the question, but after Laura's tweet acting the question about Camilla, Twitter

really ran with it. As of this recording, there are still plenty of tweets up claiming definitively not just asking the question, that Camilla is actually Chrysanta, and that she is being paid by Herd's team to make viral anti Johnny Depp tweets. Now, Chrysanta says this has led to a wave of harassment against her and her family. She wrote in a statement quote, the unbounded online harassment has gotten out of hand with addresses of my loved ones

being posted on the internet. So for the record, I am not Pamilla, nor have I ever communicated with this page. I had no idea either of these pages existed prior to this situation, and was only made aware of their existence and original thread by an email that was sent to my personal email. I was not hired to work on this case. Per the original article posted by Laura, I was hired in March. It is public knowledge that our firm did not begin working on this case until May. Now.

Remember that Twitter slew thought that Chrysanta must have been behind the Camilla account because the Camilla account uses a cartoon image of a black woman with natural hair, and that Christanta's Pinterest account has pinned similar looking cartoons and illustrations. But Chrysanta explains saying, regarding my Pinterest account, I'm a black woman with natural hair. I absolutely like art that looks like me. Why would I not want to use art like those pinned on my art board to plan

for decorating my home? She goes on the same I have always prided myself and having an outstanding reputation. In turn, I am taking legal action against Laura just a heads up. Journal lists reach out to the person before making false accusations. Here my mom's age and I'm your daughter's age. Can you imagine someone doing this to your child? Chrysanta's lawyer sent Laura a cease and desist, reading, we are hard pressed to understand why you think miss White is Camilla?

Is it because both women are African American. Regardless, your false accusation against miss White has resulted in a steady stream of harassment and threats by people who believe your claim and are like minded with respect to Johnny Depp the amber Heard defamation case. Now, Laura did say that she did not intend for Chrysanta to be harassed, tweeting I just followed the research and where it took me.

I never encouraged anyone to harass. Sorry, so I have been on the receiving end of enough online harassment to know that I was just posing a question. I never called for anyone to be harassed. Is a pretty common cover. And when you have almost a hundred thousand Twitter followers that you have amassed around an issue as intense and divisive as the Johnny Depp amber Heard trial, you have got to expect that making these kinds of baseless allegations

is just setting folks up for harassment. And if you're calling yourself a journalist, well, most journalists would do actual journalism, which is more than just tweeting out a bunch of unfounded conspiracy theories and letting your audience run wild with it. Because here's the thing, about trafficking and conspiracy theories about actual people. Once they're out of the box, and it's

almost impossible to get them back in. And even though Laura may have tweeted a half hearted apology and said that she was just asking questions and following the research, that doesn't make it go away. And what infuriates me is that this situation is not an uncommon one. The research is clear that things like conspiracy theories, miss and disinformation,

and online harassment disproportionately target Black women. And I think it's really because we live in a racist, sexist society and some sequently, we have a digital media landscape that will always be poised and ready to believe, amplify, and weaponize dangerous lies about Black women. And this is not just something happening online. Harassment that starts online rarely stays online.

It can have real world impacts, including violence. And what's even more enraging is that this just keeps on happening with very little accountability. We saw the same thing with Shay and Ruby Freeman and Megan Markel, people projecting wild conspiracies onto black women to support whatever acts they have to grind, and those lies are in turn amplified by social media platforms, and they stick, and even if they're

proven to be lies, a damage is done. We need a public reckoning that makes clear that this is not okay and that there will be consequences. Got a story about an interesting thing in tech, or just want to say hi? You can we just at Hello at tangodi dot com. You can also find transcripts today's episode at tangodi dot com. There Are No Girls on the Internet was created by me Bridget Todd. It's a production of I Heart Radio and Unboss creative Jonathan Strickland as our

executive producer. Terry Harrison is our producer and sound engineer. Michael Amato is our contributing producer. I'm your host, Bridget Todd. If you want to help us grow, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. For more podcasts from I heeart Radio, check out the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.