Guy ‘Dr Disrespect’ Beahm was accused of sending inappropriate messages to a minor which led to him being banned on Twitch. After his livestream on Monday, he suggested that he would be taking a long break from streaming.
Midnight Society, a studio co-founded by Dr Disrespect announced that they were cutting ties with him as the accusations grew. The studio said the decision was taken “to maintain our principles and standards as a studio and individuals”.
Dr Disrespect was one of the famous streamers on Twitch before the sudden ban and the termination of an exclusive deal with the platform which was believed to be worth around $10 million annually in June 2020.
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Twitch never publicly disclosed the reason for banning Dr Disrespect. However, after the streamer threatened to sue in 2021, the two parties later released statements saying the matter had been resolved and that “no party admits to any wrongdoing”.
People only got to know why Dr Disrespect was banned last Friday when a former Twitch employee posted about it on X—although no name was mentioned. While a lot of people doubted the claim made by the former Twitch employee, The Verge corroborated the claims and named Beahm but did not name their source.
“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,” wrote The Verge. “The employee worked on Twitch’s trust and safety team at the time of the ban in 2020.”
Listen, I’m obviously tied to legal obligations from the settlement with Twitch but I just need to say what I can say since this is the fucking internet.
I didn’t do anything wrong, all this has been probed and settled, nothing illegal, no wrongdoing was found, and I was paid.…
— Dr Disrespect (@DrDisrespect) June 22, 2024
Just like before, Twitch has remained silent about the claims and Dr Disrespect continued to stream on Monday. However, after playing the Elden Ring expansion for three hours, he suggested that it was time to take a break.
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“I think… we need to step away,” he said. “And when I say step away, I think I’m going to have to relay this to Midnight Society, but maybe I step away from there too [and] just completely remove myself from the scene. It’s what I need to do.”
Dr Disrespect is still shedding followers after his statement
Dr Disrespect put out a lengthy tweet on Tuesday, June 25, 2024, that officially addressed the reason for his ban on Twitch. According to the streamer, he was forced to say his side of the story after two former Twitch employees publicly spoke about it. What many of his followers found disappointing was that he did not deny committing the crime.
“Were there Twitch whisper messages with an individual minor back in 2017? The answer is yes. Were there real intentions behind these messages, the answer is absolutely not. These were casual, mutual conversations that sometimes leaned too much in the direction of being inappropriate, but nothing more,” said the streamer.
“Nothing illegal happened, no pictures were shared, no crimes were committed, I never even met the individual. I went through a lengthy arbitration regarding a civil dispute with Twitch and that case was resolved by a settlement. Let me be clear, it was not a criminal case against me and no criminal charges have ever been brought against me.”
Dr Disrespect said he would not “apologize to everyone in my community as well as those close to me, my team, and everyone at Midnight Society Game Studio”. The statement likely enraged his long-time partners and friends.
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In the hours following the tweet, Dr Disrespect shed tens of thousands of followers across his streaming platform. At the time of Insider Gaming’s report, he had 4.71 million subscribers on YouTube. However, at the time of writing, that number has dropped further to 4.69 million.
Dr Disrespect’s reputation has continued to dwindle and his proposed break from streaming may further erase him from the picture. He needs to work on building his reputation, and that may include doing the very thing he said he would not do—apologize to his followers and partners.
