The Sun borrowed a page from a former U.S. presidential candidate and called all Johnny Depp supporters “Russian bots.” The bots have responded.
Johnny Depp has been receiving a tremendous amount of support from fans both online and IRL, but The Sun claims these supporters are nothing more than “sophisticated bots” developed by Russians. Sounds familiar, right?
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Being called a “bot” is nothing new; especially if you happen to show support for a person or a cause that doesn’t exactly align with the mainstream narrative. It’s an argument often used to discredit the opposition’s relevance and devalue their status.
This argument is very childish and has even been used by some to discredit popular YouTubers. Some might have heard this variation of the argument, “you’re not relevant, those subs aren’t real, you paid for bots!”
That same argument is now being used on Johnny Depp and his attorney Adam Waldman.
Yesterday Waldman shared an email sent by the The Times that simultaneously revealed what defensive stance Amber Heard’s attorney is going to take, as well as a smear piece that the British tabloid was working on.
@TheSun Billionaire Murdochs don’t like to lose and own a media empire. The latest unreality show lie from their media assassins @timesoflondon – unnamed “experts” in a “report” vaguely claim I and a Russian industrialist together created “bots” to attack their co-conspirator. pic.twitter.com/EWnuWrTyMj
— Adam Waldman (@adam_waldman) July 24, 2020
The email claims that Johnny Depp and his attorney, Adam Waldman, had paid Russian specialists to design sophisticated bots that would share damaging information about Amber Heard on social media and sign petitions against her.
The report reads: “It has come to our attention that were targeting Ms Heard were also promoting and praising Adam Waldman. It was unusual to see that a dozen of inauthentic accounts were Tweeting about Waldman and using similar talking points.”
The report also says that an investigator had discovered that many of the accounts that signed the petition were were specifically created to sign the petition and they believed that was an indication of “Russian bots” at work.
Johnny Depp fans showed tremendous support for him outside the courthouse in UK during The Sun defamation trial.
In what appears to be massive oversight, or perhaps deliberate ignorance, the individual involved in this so-called investigation did not take a moment to consider that a lot of Depp’s fans created accounts on change.org to show support for the actor.
Heard and her attorneys think it is unfathomable that an actor who has 36-years of experience has more supporters than a Mera from Aquaman. Depp has starred in many cult classics and is still revered as one of the Hollywood greats as he’s approaching his 60s.
Johnny Depp’s fans, or should I say his legion of Russian bots, have taken the time to respond to the allegations from Heard, her attorneys, and the British tabloid on Twitter.
Johnny Depp fans show their support on Twitter.
i hope johnny depp is having an incredible saturday as we bots continue to destroy amber heard
— maría (@jonsmanager) July 25, 2020
PLEASE RETWEET MY VIDEO! am NOT a bot, I am a victim of domestic abuse and I have had enough the media smears and lies! Support true victims, support Johnny Depp! @adam_waldman @ThatBrianFella @TheInfamousOne6 #JusticeForJohnnyDepp #JohnnyDepp
— DanielPeckett1996 (@DannyPeckett) July 26, 2020
https://t.co/n3YG027RdX
I stan #Adamwaldman now too as the media attacks him for spreading his clients truth. You attacked people signed petitions or support #JohnnyDepp who is a victim. You find it more noteworthy that Survivors and or fans support #Johnny depp than you do that #AmberHeardIsAnAbuser
— Tammie (@Tee4EjamiNDays) July 25, 2020
I’m not a bot. I’m a Domestic Abuse Survivor. A #JohnnyDepp fan.. If #SashaWass is claiming a cyber campaign by his fan, she needs to prove it. And if your going to report it @thetime , you show the proof. The use of 3 innocent young lady’s as a cover pic it’s outrageous. https://t.co/g9s7zU6ue6
— ?Donna Jo? (@DonnaJo1002) July 25, 2020
I support #johnnydepp and Im not a bot #JusticeForJohnnyDepp #JohnnyDeppBots pic.twitter.com/no8mqPMtZd
— Voodoo_doll (@Voodie2) July 25, 2020
Our writers here at Sausage Roll have covered the Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard case extensively. Our articles have amassed over one million reads collectively and there is a tonne of support shown in the comment section, which is run by Facebook, I might add. This means it is easy for us to verify the authenticity of a comment and moderate it if we need to.
Our traffic is also funnelled through a strict firewall which blocks questionable IP addresses and web browsers, this give us an accurate read of how popular a certain topic is… and believe us when we say there is a lot of interest in the Depp case, and the vast majority of people are his supporters.
As for our social media profiles, we pride ourselves on the grind of getting real supporters and have never, and won’t ever, buy bots. Although we are sitting pretty at 421 Twitter followers our average tweet has about the same engagement as The Times with 1.4 million followers. Talk about buts, right?
The Times are yet to publish their piece on how Depp and Waldman might have colluded with Russians to make bots to smear Amber Heard, but, when they do, you can be sure to find our response to it right here.