Johnny Depp has officially joined TikTok, the app that helped spread misinformation and brand-endorsed misogyny during his defamation trial.
There’s one post on the account, which is verified: It’s a thank-you to Depp’s “most treasured, loyal and unwavering supporters. We’ve been everywhere together, we have seen everything together. We have walked the same road together. We did the right thing together, all because you cared. And now, we will all move forward together.”
The video features edited snippets of supporters standing outside the Virginia courtroom where the trial took place, and him waving from an SUV. There’s also footage of him performing with Jeff Beck and typing on a typewriter. Depp already has more than 4 million followers, and his first TikTok reached more than 1.5 million views in roughly an hour. There are more than 70,000 comments on the TikTok, the majority welcoming Depp to the app.
@johnnydepp To all of my most treasured, loyal and unwavering supporters. We’ve been everywhere together, we have seen everything together. We have walked the same road together. We did the right thing together, all because you cared. And now, we will all move forward together. You are, as always, my employers and once again I am whittled down to no way to say thank you, other than just by saying thank you. So, thank you. My love & respect, JD
♬ Stranger – Love Joys
Depp was awarded more than $10 million in damages last week, though ex-wife Amber Heard was also awarded damages in the case. On TikTok, however, the coverage was clearly pro-Depp, and the massive amounts of misinfo and bias that TikTok helped foster during the trial was very lucrative for some content creators. Rowan Winch, a 17-year-old creator, told the Washington Post: “When people do post stuff trying to defend Amber Heard, they will lose followers. A lot of major content creators probably don’t even care about it that much—they just care about the views that it gets.”
That will certainly inform how TikTokers cover future high-profile trials and the 2024 election. As Madison Malone Kircher wrote for Slate: “In a moment where an app like TikTok appears to have held so much sway over a very public trial with potentially far-reaching implications, we ignore its true power at our peril.”