Amber Heard Supporters Subject to ‘Widespread Harassment’ on Twitter, According to Firm Once Hired by Heard’s Lawyers
variety.comTodd Spangler NY Digital EditorTwitter trolls have engaged in “rampant abuse and widespread targeted harassment” of women on the social network who have voiced support for Amber Heard, according to a research firm that had previously been hired by lawyers representing Heard in her defamation court case with Johnny Depp.The firm, Bot Sentinel, analyzed more than 14,292 tweets that included at least one of four viral anti-Heard hashtags — #AmberHeardIsAnAbuser, #AmberHeardLsAnAbuser, #AmberHeardIsALiar and #AmberHeardLsALiar — and found that 24% of the accounts were created within the past seven months.
In the report, released Monday, Bot Sentinel said that “abusive trolls who identified as Johnny Depp supporters had subjected women to verbal abuse and targeted harassment.” “Toxic trolls continued to tweet anti-Amber Heard hashtags and attack women weeks after the Depp vs.
Heard trial ended,” Bot Sentinel wrote in the report.In at least one case, pro-Depp trolls “doxxed a woman’s family and created a fake Twitter account using a photo of the woman’s deceased child to troll her,” according to Bot Sentinel.The company disclosed that Heard’s lawyers team had hired Bot Sentinel “to determine whether the social media activity against Ms.
Heard was organic or if there was some other explanation,” and the company concluded that “a significant portion of the activity wasn’t organic.” For the report released Monday, the firm claimed, “Neither Amber Heard nor anyone from her team hired Bot Sentinel to review the activity.
Read more on variety.com
