Amber Heard and Johnny Depp - trial by TikTok

Available for over a year

2022 has been rich pickings for the tabloids and head line writers. We had the Wagatha Christie trial – starring Coleen Rooney and Rebecca Vardy – and more recently it’s been Netflix's series about Harry and Meghan which has been taking centre stage. But it was the trial of two Hollywood actors that was probably one of the most talked about events of the year…. David Sillito, the BBC's media correspondent, covered this case in the Spring. Johnny Depp successfully sued his ex-wife for libel, after she claimed in a newspaper article that she’d been the victim of domestic abuse. This story was extraordinary on a number of levels. Each evening in America, around 18-million people sit down to watch the TV news. Yet on TikTok, by the end of the trial, the number of views of videos with the hashtag ‘justice for Johnny Depp’ – was 18-billion. It meant there were essentially two cases going on - one decided by a jury, and another by the public. So who was generating all this online traffic? And what effect did it have? This is a lookback at 5 Minutes On - Amber Heard and Johnny Depp, Trial by TikTok. Image Credit: Jim Lo Scalzo and Steve Helber via Getty