Dr. Disrespect and Former Twitch Employees Shed Light on His Ban
In the modern era, stars fall much more frequently than they rise, and the latest one to light up the internet with its descent is Dr Disrespect. This particular celebrity banishment started four years ago when Dr Disrespect – a massively popular online streamer who attracted audiences in the hundreds of thousands and followers/subscribers in the millions – was banned from Twitch just three months after signing a multi-year deal with them and was simultaneously removed as a partner on Discord. The surprise move was shrouded in secrecy, with the platforms citing a violation of their terms of service without giving specifics. Naturally, this led to speculation, much of which revolved around the possibility of some form of sexual harassment; still, no reason was given. A year later, Dr Disrespect, whose real name is Herschel “Guy” Beahm, said he finally learned the reason for his banning and sued Twitch, which resulted in a settlement. In the meantime, Dr Disrespect moved to YouTube, where his streams pulled in as many as 500,000+ viewers.
That brings us to 2024. Earlier this year, Dr Disrespect claimed that his Twitch ban cost him some big licensing and partnership deals, specifically with Nike and Oakley, and he denigrated Twitch for what the company did to him. Then, on June 21, Twitch hit back – or, rather, some former Twitch employees did. The first was Cody Conners, who was the “director of strategic partnerships;” he posted this on X:
He got banned because got caught sexting a minor in the then existing Twitch whispers product. He was trying to meet up with her at TwitchCon. The powers that be could read in plain text.
Case closed, gang.
— Cody Conners (@evoli) June 22, 2024
Dr Disrespect responded to someone’s mentioning the post with this:
Jake seriously… I get it, its a hot topic but this has been settled, no wrongdoing was acknowledged and they paid out the whole contract.
— Dr Disrespect (@DrDisrespect) June 22, 2024
Two days later, another former Twitch employee – this one choosing to remain anonymous – spoke to The Verge with more details about Conners’ allegation:
“One former Twitch employee, who asked to remain anonymous citing the potential risk to their career, told The Verge that Beahm had used Whispers, Twitch’s now-defunct messaging system, to exchange messages with a minor and initiate a conversation about meeting up at TwitchCon. The employee worked on Twitch’s trust and safety team at the time of the ban in 2020.”
“The former employee… said there was a significant amount of time between when the messages between Beahm and the alleged victim were sent and when the moderation report about those messages was filed, but they weren’t able to recall how much time. When Twitch received the report in 2020, they said that Twitch investigated the claims and ultimately banned Beahm’s channel.”
Following this, Dr Disrespect had his involvement with Midnight Society, a video game studio he founded with Robert Bowling, Quinn DelHoyo, and Sumit Gupta, and Turtle Bay, a video game accessory company with which he had partnered, ended. Meanwhile, three more sources told Bloomberg that the alleged messages from Dr Disrespect were “sexually explicit.” Dr Disrespect has since made a statement on the matter, indicating that the dissolution of his partnership with Midnight Society was a mutual decision for the good of the company, that nothing illegal or predatory happened through the situation over which Twitch banned him, and that he will not end his online career:
Dr. Disrespect comments about Twitch Ban in new post pic.twitter.com/c624WqCDzu
— Geeks + Gamers (@GeeksGamersCom) June 25, 2024
But that’s not the end of it; this statement was edited from the original, where Dr Disrespect used the word “minor”:
That suggests he’s covering himself, that he knows something bad went on with this girl, if only in messages (which I hope is the extent of it, and since he wasn’t charged, that seems to be the case). And that changes a lot; initially, this looked like a coordinated counteroffensive by Twitch after Dr Disrespect insulted them over his lost licensing deals with Nike and Oakley. That this all came from former employees looked like Twitch’s way of getting around the gag order that appears to have been a stipulation of the lawsuit settlement. I also try to be very careful about believing allegations like this, especially nowadays, when we’ve seen them weaponized, which is truly despicable. But Dr Disrespect admits to sending inappropriate messages to a minor. That’s unacceptable, and if that’s the case, I completely get why Twitch and everyone else who does business with him is dumping him. On a personal level, I have no skin in this game; I was never a fan of Dr Disrespect, nor did I hate him, because I didn’t even really know who he was before this became a huge story. But based on the facts and Dr Disrespect’s own admission, this is very ugly, and I’m glad people are aware of his behavior now.
