Cases like Blac Chyna's upcoming revenge porn trial can 're-traumatize' victims of sexual violence, legal expert says
- Blac Chyna's 'revenge porn' trial against Rob Kardashian is scheduled to begin June 20.
- A lawyer specializing in sexual violence suits said social media could play a harmful role.
"Revenge porn" cases like Blac Chyna's upcoming trial against ex-fiancé Rob Kardashian can often generate social media narratives that re-traumatize victims of the internet campaigns, a lawyer focused on sexual violence cases told Insider.
The heightened online interest in celebrity cases creates an environment that is often disparaging for victims, said Hannah Meropol, an associate at C.A. Goldberg, a firm specializing in victim's rights for sexual violence cases in the technological and physical realm.
"As it's becoming increasingly apparent, in this day and age, celebrity trials can have really great implications for survivors everywhere," Meropol told Insider.
Meropol added that an unfavorable outcome in Chyna's upcoming case could have a chilling effect on victims far and wide. She referred to the highly public defamation case of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard.
On July 5, 2017, Chyna secured a temporary restraining order against Kardashian, in which she said he went on an online revenge porn tirade. Kardashian shared a photo of Chyna in the hospital, calling out what he said in the social media posts was a weight loss surgery. In the now-deleted posts, he also shared sexually explicit videos of her along with allegations against Chyna around substance abuse and infidelity, sharing private information.
During a separate defamation trial against the Kardashian family in late April and early May, Chyna was brought to tears when a lawyer for the Kardashian-Jenner family presented her with a binder containing her leaked nude photos in court. Chyna's lawyer Lynne Ciani told the court that the lawyers had an agreement not to publish the photos in any of the cases.
Heard, who claimed she was a figure representing domestic violence in a Washington Post op-ed, ultimately was found to have defamed Depp as a jury awarded Depp $15 million in damages. Heard, meanwhile, was awarded $2 million in damages due to Depp's attorney's claim that her allegations of sexual assault were a "hoax."
In a multi-part interview with the "Today" show's Savannah Guthrie this week, Heard lamented that she was not a "perfect victim" in the eyes of the jurors. She said that the mostly pro-Depp sentiments online and outside the courthouse during the trial made her feel "less than a human."
"I have never felt more removed from my own humanity," Heard said in the interview.
Heard added in the interview that she believed that jurors were swayed by unfair online content that heavily favored Depp and said that "the vast majority of this trial was played out on social media."
Meropol said that the implications of the public's perception of Heard as a victim could reverberate in Chyna's trial.
"It could dissuade someone from pursuing accountability because they might see that even if a high-profile victim such as Angela White [Blac Chyna] can't get justice, and in trying to get that justice is dragged through the tabloids and on social media," Meropol told Insider, "someone might feel like, well, what hope do I have as a normal person suffering from this, to get that accountability."