NOTE: This article contains details and descriptions that are graphic and disturbing. Please read at your own discretion. In today’s online culture, almost anything can be subject to memeification, and the most high-profile domestic violence trial in recent memory is no exception.
After only a few minutes spent on TikTok — a platform often, though sometimes mistakenly, heralded as being a progressive, Gen Z-dominated space for activism and social justice — the algorithm may very well start showing users trending topics like the Johnny Depp vs.
Amber Heard defamation trial. However, social media users may be hard-pressed to find content in support of Heard, despite the ex-spouses both claiming to be victims of intimate partner violence.
In fact, the vast majority of content about the trial posted on TikTok appears to be vehemently against Heard. Since the very start of this trial last month, Depp supporters online have analyzed Heard’s body language, movements and testimony with intense scrutiny.