Amber Heard Says Unfair Social Media Trolling Impacted Defamation Trial

In one of her first interviews after the defamation trial against Johnny Depp, Amber Heard has opened up about the massive social media trolling she faced during the trial and how it impacted the verdict of the case.

Earlier this month, a jury ruled that actor Amber Heard defamed Johnny Depp when she wrote the Washington Post op-ed and called herself a survivor of domestic abuse. Depp was awarded 15 million dollars and Heard was awarded 2 million dollars in the defamation case.

For the first time since the verdict, Heard spoke in an interview on the Today Show. She said she did not “blame” the jury but did mention that her representation on social media was unfair. In the interview, Heard said about Depp “He’s a beloved character and people feel they know him. He’s a fantastic actor.”

Heard said “How could they make a judgment, how could they not come to that conclusion,” after the jury listened to more than three weeks of testimonies against her claims.

Amber Heard Trolling During Defamation Trial

Speaking about the social media hate and trolling she faced, Heard said that, “I don’t care what one thinks about me or what judgements you want to make about what happened.” She said that she doesn’t presume that an average person would know about her personal life, so she doesn’t take it personally.

Heard then said that even people that believed she deserved “all this hate and vitriol” and believed she is lying couldn’t claim that “on social media, there’s been a fair representation”.

A vast majority of the social media content favoured Depp. On TikTok, videos with #justiceforjohnnydepp reached nearly 20 billion views. Videos with #justiceforamberheard reacher around 80 million views.

The jurors in the case had been ordered not to read or research the case but were not sequestered. Even though the jury was ordered to stay off social media, Heard’s legal team insists that it impacted the case. Attorney Elaine Charlson Bredehoft said that “There’s no way they couldn’t be influenced by it”.

Bredehoft was referring to how jurors got a 10-day long break from the trial and went home every night to their families who “are on social media”.

Suggested Reading: Johnny Depp Vs Amber Heard: Guess What, Nobody Won!