After facing backlash from some fans, former NSYNC member Lance Bass deleted a TikTok video in which he mocked actress Amber Heard's testimony against ex-husband Johnny Depp in their defamation case.
Depp, who divorced Heard in 2017, sued her for $50 million in damages after she wrote a 2018 op-ed in The Washington Post in which she claimed to have been a victim of domestic violence.
The Pirates of the Caribbean actor alleged he was the victim and that Heard's allegations were a hoax.
The very public Depp-Heard trial prompted a viral TikTok trend in which users re-enacted portions of Heard's testimony.
Bass joined the trend and immediately faced backlash in the comments, which prompted him to remove the clip.
But in the world of the internet and keeping receipts, users managed to save and re-share the deleted post.
In his video, the singer dubbed an audio clip of Heard's testimony and re-enacted the actress recalling the first time Depp allegedly struck her.
"At this point, we're sitting next to each other on the edge of the couch, or I was on the edge of the couch," said Heard in the video as Bass staggered into the living room and took a seat.
He comically adjusted his staging of her recollection of being on the floor when Heard said, "I was just sitting there on the carpet, looking at this dirty carpet and wondering how I wound up on this carpet."
In spite of the controversy, people skeptical of Heard's testimony found Bass's reenactment humorous.
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Fans encouraged the former boyband singer to put the video back up.
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Others, however, maintained his trivializing a case involving domestic abuse was in poor taste.
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The veracity of Heard's testimony remained a topic of debate.
TikTok has removed several videos that made light of Heard's testimony, citing a violation of the platform's anti-bullying policies.
TikTok's policy states:
“We remove expressions of abuse, including threats or degrading statements intended to mock, humiliate, embarrass, intimidate or hurt an individual.”
Hundreds of other similar videos, however, remain on the platform.
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