Twitch star streamer Imane ‘Pokimane’ Anys was criticized after turning the Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard defamation trial into a meme, so she quickly deleted her tweet.
The high-profile court case is set to run for five weeks in Fairfax County, Virginia, and is expected to come to a close after May 27.
Heard has accused her divorcé of domestic violence throughout her court appearances. This follows on from the 2018 op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post – which led to Depp suing her for alleged defamation, stating the claims made in the article were untrue.
Both celebrity actors have provided the jury with photographs, showing marks on their faces following alleged domestic abuse.
Pokimane turns Depp vs Heard trial into a meme
As is the case with any celebrity case in the United States, mainstream media attention has put every shred of evidence, testimony, and witness under a grander spotlight than the average legal sitting. So much so that the trial has been streamed around the world, attracting millions of views.
Several big Twitch streamers have been commenting along the way, one of which has been Pokimane.
On May 3, she posted her first YouTube video about the matter, joking that Heard “Googled how to look sad” in court.
The content creator has been watching along ever since, and on May 17, Poki decided to engage with the memeification of the case. Using a popular meme format from The Office, where the character Pam shows two photos that are identical looking, asking for differences, Pokimane added photos of Ms. Heard.
In the trial, it was said that different lighting shows the marks more prominently. “They’re the same picture,” the meme joked.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
Depp vs Heard trial meme splits opinion
It didn’t take long before a number of Twitter users criticized the move, saying it was making light of domestic abuse.
One user said: “Ah yes let’s make memes and jokes about this case cuz this will definitely not affect anyone in the same situation.”
Right? Love mocking a huge domestic abuse case!! This will definitely not signal that I'm a terrible person to come to in case you're being abused!
— Blauw 🕊🍮 (@LiefDuif) May 17, 2022
Another posted: “Love mocking a huge domestic abuse case!! This will definitely not signal that I’m a terrible person to come to in case you’re being abused!”
you can delete all you’d like but it doesn’t erase the fact that you posted this @pokimanelol pic.twitter.com/FJLzwFHszz
— bree (@xmenrogues) May 17, 2022
“Imagine making a “meme” using pictures of a domestic violence survivor’s bruises. you’re evil,” one other user stated.
Pokimane has since deleted the tweet.
