Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty
A new NBC News documentary titled A Marriage on Trial: Johnny Depp, Amber Heard and Truth in the Age of Social Media is the latest deep dive into the celebrity defamation trial heard around the world—or seen everywhere on TikTok, more accurately.
It’s been a little over a month since a jury decided that Aquaman actress Amber Heard defamed her ex-husband, Pirates of the Caribbean star Johnny Depp, when she referred to herself as “the face of domestic abuse” in a Washington Post op-ed in 2018. Depp was awarded $15 million in damages (receiving $10.35 million due to the state’s punitive cap) and Heard $2 million for a counterclaim she won.
Since that stunning verdict, speculation about the ruling’s impact on future domestic abuse cases and the overall fate of #MeToo has incited fear and anxiety amongst feminists, survivors of abuse, and domestic violence organizations. Much has also been said about the role of social media in the Depp-Heard case and the way videos mocking, manipulating, and reenacting Heard’s testimony became nearly inescapable across social media platforms.