On TikTok, videos mocking Amber Heard, who has been sued by ex-husband Johnny Depp for defamation, have been trending.
However, TikTok has removed several of the videos after music magazine Rolling Stone contacted TikTok, claiming the videos violated the platform’s terms of service.
A user going by the handle @heyitsgingerandpepper, with more than 900,000 followers, made a video using audio from Heard’s testimony in the case.
In the video, Heard’s testimony is reenacted by a cat in a blond wig, with the same cat in a black wig and a Pirates of The Caribbean bandana playing Johnny Depp. When the video starts, the cat playing Heard is lightly slapped using a finger.
The videos mock the alleged inconsistencies in Heard’s testimony, particularly the part where she says that she “turned to look at [Depp]” after he hit her. The original video’s caption read: “Don’t you have to be looking at someone in the face to be able to slap them across it?”
The video had more than 14 million views and the sound in the video has been used in 15,000 videos on the platform. Most of the top videos using the sound have more than 10 million views.
Concerned that the videos violated TikTok’s terms of service against content promoting normalizing, or glorifying violence or suffering, Rolling Stone contacted the platform.
TikTok removed some of the videos it was sent by the outlet, saying they were removed because they violated its policy against bullying and harassment, which does not allow “content that disparages victims of violent tragedies.”
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