In the early hours of Sunday morning, Hollywood actress and domestic violence activist Amber Heard fired off a tweet calling out Instagram for its censorship of the female body, posting side-by-side images of herself and her Aquaman co-star Jason Momoa with their chests exposed in an effort to highlight the social-media platform’s unfair “nudity guidelines & careful gender policies.” The tweet caught the attention of Alana Evans, an adult actress who, as leader of the Adult Performers Actors Guild (APAG)—a union representing those in the porn industry—has spearheaded a campaign to get Instagram to end its discriminatory practices against sex workers, from shadow-banning to outright deleting accounts for no apparent reason.
“Our performers, sex workers and cam models have been dealing with being deleted from Instagram for head shots, BBWs are deleted for wearing bikinis. We’re not exposing any of our actual body parts—we’re not violating the rules—but performers are being deleted en masse,” Evans tells The Daily Beast. “We’d been sending [Instagram] naked pictures of Miley Cyrus and Kim Kardashian that still sit on Instagram. These are celebrities that are a part of the elite. They have pictures of themselves fully exposing their breasts, you report the image, and you’re told it’s not a violation.”
So, Evans tweeted at Heard asking her to support the “thousands of sex workers” like herself who’ve been on the frontlines of the fight against Instagram’s censorship practices—and, much to Evans’ surprise, the actress replied in kind.
“You have my support! Sex workers rights are human rights. The fact this is even a topic of debate should take the breath out of any feminist, or humanist for that matter,” Heard tweeted, later adding, “I always have publicly supported sex worker rights but of course I would love 2 hear more about how I can help what you’re speaking 2. Thank u 4 not assuming, tho i havent been involved n ur particular fight, that it means I haven't been aware of sex worker issues at all.”
Over the past several months, Evans had tweeted at everyone from Kim Kardashian to Miley Cyrus to Sharon Stone asking them to “amplify the message” concerning Instagram’s treatment of sex workers, but her pleas had fallen on deaf ears. “Every other time before now they’ve ignored it. They have no problem hashtagging #FreeTheNipple but they don’t understand that this is beyond your nipple. You’re fighting to be able to expose yourself, we’re fighting to be able to exist,” says Evans.
“Amber replies, and is completely kind. When she did, it was amazing. It was a moment of, thank you for hearing us,” Evans continues. “And then all of a sudden, oh my lord, it started.”
Hundreds of Johnny Depp truther accounts began targeting Evans for the crime of being acknowledged by Heard—the Pirates of the Caribbean actor’s former spouse, who received a $7 million settlement from Depp after accusing him of domestic abuse (Depp has contested the claims).
“It started with people coming at me, accusing me of getting involved with someone who was an ‘abuser.’ I was completely confused. I didn’t understand what it was that they were talking about,” recalls Evans. “And then I started to realize that all of these people have Johnny Depp as their photo on their profiles, and then I realized what was happening. In a matter of 24 hours, it started from a trickle to a full-blown harassment campaign.”
Evans received a barrage of messages from Depp superfans disputing the abuse allegations against their hero that “all look like bot accounts, follow the same number of people that follow them, and use these chocolate-donut emojis to show their solidarity.” Then the tweets got personal, calling Evans a variety of awful names—“bitch,” “cunt,” you name it—and threatening her for so much as associating with Heard.
“I thought, wait a minute, Amber is being attacked just for existing, and I’m being attacked just for talking to her!” exclaims Evans. “So, I posted a message of support for her because, at that moment, I could see all the crap that she was dealing with—all of these crazy, obsessed fans of Johnny Depp’s that are coming for her.”
In addition to the message of support, Evans posted the infamous TMZ video from 2016 that shows a clearly-inebriated Depp furiously shouting at Heard in an aggressive manner while rearranging their kitchen with his fists.
“I grew up with 21 Jump Street and have probably watched every single movie he’s made,” Evans says of Depp. “However, after seeing the TMZ video back in 2016, I wasn’t interested in watching his movies anymore or supporting anything he’s done. And that was my choice.”
Evans is no stranger to online harassment. In addition to her position as an outspoken adult actress, she became embroiled in the Donald Trump-Stormy Daniels affair saga when she revealed to The Daily Beast that Trump had invited her into a threesome with himself and Daniels, and that Daniels had confided in her that Trump chased her around his hotel room “in his tighty-whities.”
“As we know, I have my history with Trump. I’ve been through Trump harassment. This was worse. This brought more fear about my personal safety than my Donald Trump situation, simply because of the level of crazy, the obsession,” says Evans. “Politics are one thing, but when you are an obsessed fan and worship someone, it’s a different level of obsession. These are the types of people that show up outside your house.”
She pauses. “It made me appreciate and respect the fact that Amber took the time to post that message of solidarity, because I understood how much hate mail she gets on a daily basis. She puts herself through so much just to hear our cries, and show us support.”
