There Are No Girls on the Internet - The Amber Heard v Johnny Depp trial may be over, but the online harassment continues

Episode Date: August 16, 2022

In this update to our original episode about the Heard v Depp trial, we're exploring the shifting public sentiment to the case and the continuing wave of harassment in its wake.   Unsealed Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard Court Documents Reveal Shocking New Claims: https://www.thedailybeast.com/unsealed-docs-from-johnny-depp-v-amber-heard-defamation-trial-contain-shockin A pro-Johnny Depp YouTuber was sent a cease-and-desist after she targeted an employee of Amber Heard’s PR team: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/-johnny-depp-youtuber-was-sent-cease-desist-targeted-employee-amber-he-rcna42741See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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This week on Crimless, Rory and I welcome a very special guest. When I did a podcast, I wear my sleep masks. I like what this is going. So if you guys will indulge me. That's right, the incredibly talented and hilarious Will Ferrell on an episode dedicated to crimes committed by people named Will Ferrell. You're good for 300 crimes? Yeah. We got two.

I'm ready to go right up to present day. Listen to Crimless on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just a quick heads up. Today's episode talks about sexual assault and domestic violence. There Are No Girls on the Internet as a production of IHeart Radio and Unbossed Creative. I'm Bridget Todd, and this is There Are No Girls on the Internet. So I have a bit of an update for you on the Johnny Depp Amber Heard defamation trial. You'll probably remember that earlier this summer, a jury determined that actor Amber Heard was liable for defaming Johnny Depp

in a 2018 op-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, Depp supporters crowdfunded thousands of dollars to unseal some 6,000 documents, which contain evidence that lawyers for both Depp and Herd were able to keep out of the trial itself. Now, the idea here was for Depp supporters to publish new dirt on Heard,

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 Hurd during the trial. For instance, previously sealed pretrial documents show that Hurd's lawyers argued that Depp's team was trying to introduce nude images of Amber Hurd into evidence and include Amber's work as an exotic dancer years before she ever met Johnny Debb, and that Mr. Depp was, quote, attempting to frivolously and maliciously suggest or imply that Ms. Heard was at one time

an escort. The unsealed documents also show some of the evidence that Depp'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, a psychiatrist who testified on behalf of heard about the alleged trauma inflected by Depp. There are also pretty awful texts between Depp and his friend, actor Paul Bataney, where Batani 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 corpse, which I won't get into here. The unsealed documents also included audio of heard telling Depp, quote, I had dumped you a fucking week, week prior, after you beat the shit 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 Hallie 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 deaf 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 Hurd on the platform. So the trial may be over for now, unless Amber Hurd's team appeals. And public opinion may be 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 is an entire thriving industry of sellers who make and sell memorabilia related to the trial. This one is really gross, so trigger warning. Amber Hurd testified that she was sexually assaulted with a bottle, and a sex toy company called Twisted Fenthesies 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 memeification of a trial that at its heart, regardless of how you look at it, is about domestic violence. And I just find 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 riffing about the trial. It's creators, too. YouTubers and TikTokers that popped up solely to create commentary on the Amber Hurd 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 Kat Tenbarge, an internet reporter at NBC, who has done a great job of covering the case in its online fallout. She writes that some YouTubers and content creators amassed millions of views by covering the trial from a pro-Depp 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 protect her privacy. Laura Bacobin, who calls herself a truth-seeker and a, quote, internet journalist, runs a Twitter account with 70,000 followers and a popular YouTube channel dedicated to supporting Depp and creating pro-Depp viral content during the trial.

Kat Tenbard at NBC reports that some of Laura's tweets about the trial received more than 25,000 and her YouTube video was about Depp's legal cases have more than 370,000 combined views. She was also in contact with Depp'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, implying 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 Heard's PR team. Laura tweeted, quote, is this you?

And linked to a deadline article about the hiring of Chrysanta White at Shane Communications, a firm contracted by Amber Heard to manage her PR. Now, Camilla outright denied that she was Chrysanta. So, Chrysanta is a person who actually exists, and she actually does work for Shane Communications, the firm retained by Amber Heard. But Chrysanta says she doesn't do social media for them. Instead, she works in diversity and inclusion.

So what evidence is there that Camilla is actually Chrysanta? A paid shill 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.

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And we're 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 asking 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

Heard's team to make viral anti-Johnny Depp tweets. Now, Cresanta says this has led to a wave of harassment against her and her family. She wrote in a statement, quote, the unfounded 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 Camilla, 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 sleuth 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 Krista's Pinterest account has pinned similar-looking cartoons and illustrations.

But Krissanta 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 to say, I have always prided myself on having an outstanding reputation. In turn, I am taking legal action against Laura. Just a heads up, journalists reach out to the person before making false accusations.

You're my mom's age, and I'm your daughter's age. Can you imagine someone doing this to your child? Chrisanta's lawyers 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 Ms. 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 Hurd 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 100,000 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, 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, misand disinformation, and online harassment disproportionately target black women. And I think it's really because we live in a racist, sexist society.

And subsequently, 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 Markle.

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 reach us at hello at tangoody.com. You can also find transcripts for today's episode at tangoody.com. There are no girls on the internet was created by me, Bridget Todd.

It's a production of IHeart Radio and Unbossed Creative. Jonathan Strickland is our executive producer. Tari 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 IHeartRadio, check out the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, fam, it's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm CJ Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season,

and I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was part of it. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Mark keep coming to you. He's like, you know, I love you, dog. You know, it's all love.

This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This week on Crimless, Rory and I welcome a very special guest. When I did a podcast, I wear my sleep mask. I like where this is going. So if you guys will indulge me. That's right.

The incredibly talented and hilarious Will Ferrell. on an episode dedicated to crimes committed by people named Will Ferrell. You're good for 300 crimes? Yeah. We got two. I'm ready to go right up to present day. Listen to Crimless on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What would you eat if you had to start over?

Real simple, poor man's, poor woman's food. Black beans, chicken, rice, plantains. On the podcast Eating While Broke, I sit down with celebrities, entrepreneurs, and creators as they revisit the meals they once relied on and the moments that shaped their journey. Named Best Food Podcasts at the 2006 IHeart Podcast Awards, the full season is available to binge. Right now. Listen to Eating While Broke from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.