How masculinists hijacked the Depp-Heard lawsuit

I had to subscribe to a VPN service and invent a French postal code to see the show The factory of lies on France.tv, whose most recent episode is devoted to Johnny Depp’s defamation lawsuit against his ex-spouse Amber Heard.

That’s the problem these days: if we are always a click away from a conspiracy theory, we sometimes have to make contortions to have access to documented facts.

Because the documentary Johnny Depp/Amber Heard case, justice put to the test by social networks (directed by Élix Suffert-Lopez, Arnaud Lievin and Elsa Guiol) is a masterful lesson in information, the detailed and relentless chronology of the hijacking of a trial that caused a stir last year.

We remember, this affair was passionately followed by Internet users, who watched it live on the web. In fact, most people watched daily summaries on social media courtesy of misogynistic influencers, who didn’t shy away from tampering with the truth. Result ? Everyone was manipulated. Johnny Depp was erected as a hero, who fights against the deceit of a woman, and Amber Heard suffered the most hateful digital surge imaginable.

It was this hatred that troubled me while following the trial. At first, like many people, I laughed a bit at the shameless unpacking of the problems of the couple that we were witnessing, but very quickly, this trial became delirious between the pro-Depp (majority) and those, more rare, who tried to defend Amber Heard.

Remember that it all started when Johnny Depp sued Amber Heard for defamation after the publication of a forum where she presented herself as a victim of domestic violence without naming him. In another London libel suit in 2020, Depp lost to the tabloid The Sun, because English justice had held against him 12 of the 14 counts of domestic violence. Since he could not appeal, he handed it over against Amber Heard in a new televised trial in Fairfax, Va., which was to become a real circus.

Following this case, I had never seen such a charge of violence against a woman, enough to see it as revenge against the #metoo movement.

And you know what ? It was exactly that, according to the documentary of The factory of lies. A frontal attack on #metoo, five years after women’s global speaking out. A golden opportunity to attack their credibility, via Amber Heard. We have underestimated the power of masculinist groups on the web, but since this documentary, as well as that of Léa Clermont-Dion and Guylaine Maroist, Hail Bitch: Misogyny in the Digital Age, we can no longer put our heads in the sand. They are organized, evolve in parallel with society and are dangerous. As they often swim in the same waters of disinformation and the far right, specialists in radicalization are increasingly convinced that they represent a threat to the internal security of democratic countries.

In this documentary, we learn that Depp’s lawyer approached the masculinist YouTubers even before the trial and that he allegedly provided them with excerpts from the couple’s recorded shouting matches, which they edited to make Heard look bad. .

This is what happened throughout the trial, of which images were isolated to sway public opinion. For example, Amber Heard showed off a Milani-brand makeup palette similar to the one she said she used to hide her bruises. In a TikTok video, the brand took a stand by saying that this range did not exist at the time of the events – however, Amber Heard never said that it was this brand that she had used, but very quickly on the web, it became proof that she was lying. And Milani got a publicity stunt by the gang.

According to the specialists consulted for this documentary, the traditional media too quickly put the London Depp-Heard trial in the “press people” department, which left all the room during the second trial to disinformants on social networks where the real show happened. So much so that people have been forced to tell the story of the masculinists who have invaded the field – and made a nice money pass on the platforms.

They were particularly invested in this trial, not only by ideology, but because it was also very profitable. We know that the content that generates the most engagement is the one that inspires anger, more than goodwill. Imran Ahmed, director of the Center for Combating Digital Hate in England, explains the phenomenon: “One of the reasons why there is an increase in malicious and hateful content is that it is profitable. For the platform and for Internet users. And don’t count on the platforms – certainly not on Elon Musk who wants to defend “freedom of expression” – to clean up. It’s for the same reason that the Fox News network monks supported Trump’s lies on TV: so as not to kill the golden goose.

On TikTok, the biased coverage of the trial went to young people. By laughter. For example, a feature of the platform made it possible to isolate a sound clip from Amber Heard’s testimony. Thousands of tiktokeurs were able to laugh at her by imitating her, while she was telling… a marital rape. Humiliation, digital raids, harassment, that’s the tactic.

Masculinists created the hashtag #justiceforJohnnyDepp, which quickly trended on Twitter. And when the algorithm detects a trend, it pushes it towards users who do not necessarily follow this story, and who received it without neutrality, to say the least. There would have been 6000 bots to boost the pro-Depp campaign. An online petition to remove Amber Heard from the film Aquaman 2 collected 4 million signatures, “making it the most signed petition in the world against a person”, notes actress Rose Lamy. We are far from the small chicane between stars which only interests gossip magazines, made there.

A masculinist influencer will write: “This lawsuit is more important than Depp. What I want to do is destroy the idea that you have to believe women. Human rights matter. »

He’s absolutely right that this lawsuit was bigger than Depp. Apply the treatment Amber Heard received to any minority or any divisive subject in society, and you have a small idea of ​​the real threat hanging over our democracies.

I sincerely hope that this episode of The factory of lies will be presented in Quebec (everywhere, in fact), because it is probably one of the most enlightening documents that I have seen on the phenomenon of brainwashing that can be done on social networks, on the extraordinary potential for harm that this allows. The radicalization of men creates berserk like Andrew Tate who has millions of views and subscribers and whose hateful content has not gone away despite his arrest for pimping.

“The way social platforms work will always give advantage to misogyny and hatred of women,” sums up Imran Ahmed. The purpose of all this? Scare and silence, which is the opposite of freedom of expression.

Because while Johnny Depp leads his life, cushy, Amber Heard, whom a court has recognized as a victim of domestic violence and who is also a victim of online hatred, must live under a false name in Europe. Regardless of what one thinks of Depp or Heard, what happened on the fringes of this case is disgusting. And more than worrying.