Angelina Jolie Targeted By Social Media Creators Who Mocked, Shamed Amber Heard: Report

Angelina Jolie is being targeted over her legal battle with ex-husband Brad Pitt by the same social media creators who attacked Amber Heard over her allegations against her ex-husband Johnny Depp, a report has found.

A review conducted by NBC News of hundreds of comments on Twitter, TikTok and YouTube about Jolie showed that the "Eternals" actress faces online attacks in the form of comparison to Heard, who was shamed, mocked and had false allegations about her spread on social media during the defamation trial between her and Depp earlier this year.

The attacks on Jolie began after she filed a countersuit against Pitt on Oct. 4, alleging that he physically and emotionally abuse her and their children. The actress alleged that during a 2016 flight on a private jet, "Pitt choked one of the children and struck another in the face," which led to her filing for divorce days later.

A representative for Pitt previously denied the allegations, telling NBC News in a statement that the actor won't "own anything he didn't do" in court.

The accounts attacking Jolie are part of what a domestic violence researcher and an instructor in unconscious bias described as a trend of misogynistic stereotypes aimed at high-profile woman accusers, according to the outlet.

Those who posted videos attacking Heard on YouTube, TikTok and other platforms during the defamation trial were incentivized by the thousands to millions of views they received on social media and the hundreds of thousands of dollars they earned as a result, according to a previous NBC News report.

"The things we saw, the memes, the clips of the trial, they were overwhelmingly going against Amber Heard. They overwhelmingly portrayed her as this femme fatale, as this untrustworthy individual," Adrienne Lawrence, a media personality and former litigator, said, according to the outlet.

"Creators and audiences on social media are applying a similar lens to Jolie's allegations against Pitt, and other women's allegations online," the outlet reported.

Twelve YouTube channels directly compared Jolie with Heard in titles and thumbnails, NBC News found.

The smallest of these channels has over 5,000 subscribers, while the largest, a Spanish-language pop culture channel, has more than 3.2 million subscribers. On average, the videos received more than 20,000 views each.

Just like Heard, Jolie was characterized as a liar in titles and thumbnails of some of the videos. Some videos wondered if the "Maleficent" star was using "Amber Heard tactics" or was "the next" Heard, according to the outlet.

The new genre of video content comparing Heard to other women who speak out has also sparked discussions on social media.

"Angelina Jolie is not the next Amber Heard. Why is blaming women for being the victim of their drunken husbands trending? Every single one of their kids chose to go with Angelina. That's all you need to know. Stop defending abusers and then attacking victims of domestic abuse," one tweeted.

"The people that are saying 'Angelina Jolie is the next Amber Heard' need to stop. Angie and Brad's incident happened six years ago, but people all of a sudden want to pay attention now. So no, Angelina isn't 'just bringing it up now.' This has been going on for years," another comment read.

In June, a Virginia jury ruled that Heard defamed Depp when she identified herself as a victim of domestic abuse in a 2018 op-ed in The Washington Post and ordered her to pay $10.3 million in damages. Depp was also found to have defamed Heard and was ordered to pay $2 million in damages.

Heard filed her grounds of appeal Tuesday, citing a lack of "clear and consistent evidence" of actual malice and an "inherently and irreconcilably inconsistent" jury decision that each party had defamed the other.

Jolie and Pitt have been locked in a messy court battle ever since she filed for divorce in September 2016. They have been declared legally single, but they are still fighting over the custody of their minor children.

In February, Pitt also filed a lawsuit against Jolie, claiming that she illegally sold her shares of Miraval, a French company including a chateau and vineyard that the former couple purchased together in the south of France.

Seven months later, a company owned by the "Changeling" actress filed a $250 million lawsuit against Pitt, alleging that he attempted to "seize control" of the winery as a means of "retaliation" for his "divorce and custody proceedings" with Jolie, Page Six reported.