On Wednesday, a jury of five men and two women defeated Depp in his defamation lawsuit against Hurd, his ex-wife. Hurd, for her part, prevailed in part of her counterclaim against Depp. Depp accused Hurd of falsely and maliciously accusing him of domestic violence, which cost him millions in damages from lost acting work, after an article attributed to Hurd was published by The Washington Post in 2018. Although the song did not mention the name of Depp directly, Hurd described himself as “a public figure representing domestic violence.” The verdict quickly made its way through social media platforms, with some conservative experts such as Anne Coulter and Megan McCain announcing the death of #MeToo. (McCain’s tweet, which read: “#MeToo is dead. Helluva job @ACLU” has since been deleted; ACLU drafted the article with an opinion and helped post it. Hurd is the organization’s ambassador.)
Tarana Burke, who launched the Me Too movement years before it became a viral hashtag, said in a statement Thursday that the movement is “very much alive.”
Burke said people were trying to “kill” the hashtag “every few months” as a sport, but that “it means something to millions and millions of people.”
“You can’t kill us. We’re beyond the hashtag. We’re a movement,” Burke said. “The” I too “movement is not dead. The system is dead.” Days earlier, Burke’s organization, so did I. International issued a statement acknowledging the “mockery of assault, shame and accusation” during the weeks of the trial, calling it a “toxic catastrophe and one of the movement’s biggest slanders”. Despite the weight of the testimony during the trial, Hurd’s allegations of abuse were widely ridiculed. As the process was broadcast live, it was possible to take footage and turn it into videos, which led to views and new followers. Many content creators quickly realized that there was an audience for creating pro-Depp content, while posts deemed sympathetic to Hurd made online targets of others.
Experts are worried about how the process is going on social networks.
“Not only has the extremely serious issue of domestic violence been turned into an incredible spectacle on social media, but the mainstream media and public discourse have been so diligently involved in the misanthropic narrative that has obscured the main – and clear – legal issues,” Mary Ann Franks said. from the Miami Law School told CNN Business on Wednesday after the verdict.
In a 2019 document, Franks pointed out the contradictions between those who support freedom of speech and those who want to reduce what some can talk about freely.
“Women’s speech is the most feared and therefore widely regulated, criticized and banned throughout American history,” she wrote in 2019, adding that the “mass movement of women talking about experiences and abuse” which have long been suppressed, such as the #MeToo movement, should be praised as a typical exercise in free speech. ”
Depp v. Hurd’s lawsuit, she said Wednesday, essentially boils down to a “digital witch trial”, noting that the intention is to “undo the slight progress made by the #MeToo movement”.
(Carrie Goldberg, a lawyer whose firm is known for representing victims of sexual crimes both online and offline, tweeted Wednesday: “In the last few weeks, we’ve had a good percentage of potential clients in need of legal help against an ex. abuser and expressed horror at how they feared revenge like Depp. “
Pro-Dep zeal was especially evident in TikTok. Shortly before the verdict was read, the hashtag #JusticeForJohnnyDepp garnered 18.8 billion views, while #JusticeForAmberHeard garnered just 68.2 million.
“It’s a huge celebration at TikTok right now for Johnny Depp,” said Ashley Roberts, a TikTok user who had previously been targeted by pro-Depp supporters and men’s rights activists for expressing a different perspective. CNN Business on Wednesday night.
“It wasn’t a complete loss for her,” Roberts added, referring to Hurd’s winning part of her counterclaim, a fact she said was not acknowledged in many holiday publications.
After the verdict, hostility to Hurd erupted, with people using the hashtag #MeToo to insult her and feeling encouraged by the verdict to do so. Hurd, meanwhile, said he planned to appeal.
Add Comment