EDIT: Dr Disrespect has made a full statement regarding the ban.
Twitch abruptly permabanned one of its biggest names (Guy Beahm a.k.a. Dr Disrespect) from their platform back in 2020 without explanation. Four years later, two former Twitch employees have now spoken up, alleging that he was banned for sexting with a minor through the Twitch Whispers app and attempting to meet up with her at TwitchCon.
This came two years after a settled lawsuit between Twitch and Beahm, where neither party admitted to any wrongdoing, and his contract was paid.
Other notes and links:
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The Twitter post made by former Twitch employee, Cody Conners (@evoli)
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Esports journalist Rod “Slasher” Breslau (@slasher), who previously tweeted that he had been told by ‘credible sources’ about why Beahm was banned, but couldn’t say anything due to the sensitivity of the subject, has also corroborated what Cody Conners confirmed.
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The other former Twitch employee who spoke to the Verge asked to remain anonymous.
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Response from Dr Disrespect (@DrDisrespect) via Twitter denying any wrongdoing.
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Midnight Society (@12am) announcing on Twitter that they have cut all ties with Dr Disrespect following these allegations. This is an indie game studio that the Doc was a co-founder of.
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Turtle Beach have seemingly dropped their partnership with Dr Disrespect. All of his branded merch has been removed from their website.
Shocking the guy who was ‘playing’ a dumass ragelord ‘character’ turned out to be a POS in real life.
It’s important to be said that you have to be very careful when playing a satire character, because if you’re not you will just become the satire character. Larry the Cable Guy is not even from the south. If you’re doing something ironically or you like something ironically you have to make sure that it’s something that you’re okay with doing unironically or that you really take care to separate yourself from that thing in certain ways otherwise you will start to believe, like, and/or do those things unironically
As Kurt Vonnegut put it in Mother Night: We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.
Allegedly.
Edit 1: Downvotes for not jumping to a conclusion with no actual proof. Okey dokey.
Edit 2: I hadn’t seen his post on Twitter that was made around the same time as my comment.
Actual proof of what? That Dr. Disrespect sent private messages to a minor? I guess I would take him at his own word since he tweeted admitting it hours ago.
I hadn’t seen the post on Twitter, I don’t use Twitter. Looks like he posted that about an hour before I commented, so it’s not like you’d expect everyone in the world to have seen it.
Having read it I’ve obviously got new information and can update my opinion accordingly.
To be clear, though, he hadn’t made this statement until today, and so everyone until now was acting based on hearsay, not proof.
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.
Disgusting.
what? he said it himself. he admitted, today, in his OWN words he had inappropriate chats with a minor. What more proof do you need? Like if someone came up to you and said “you know essteeyou, I did this” you’d be like “well you allegedly did it”. cope some more bro, cope some more.
Yeah well the guy was a fucking asshole, this is to nones shock
So he was messaging a minor and Twitch just got him off their platform and nothing more happened? No repercussions for what he was allegedly doing from a legal standpoint?
Twitch probably doesn’t care beyond reputational damage/liability.
a settled lawsuit between Twitch and Beahm, where neither party admitted to any wrongdoing, and his contract was paid.
In fact it sounds like Twitch made an effort to keep it quiet, which was successful until these former employees spoke out (hope they don’t suffer consequences)
Edit to add: Which is not to say there couldn’t be separate consequences. It’s just not going to come from Twitch. I’m sure a certain three letter agency is quite a bit more interested in Beahm now.
If Twitch helped to cover up a criminal act, they’d be opening themselves up to liability. Especially since they supposedly provide the product used for the communication AND apparently knew about it.
The simpler answer is, the reality isn’t as simple as the tweet makes it out to be. Twitch may have thought/known the user was a minor based off internal-only information, like previous messages, account information, etc. not anything in the conversation with Doc. In that case Doc would not have known they were a minor, and thus his actions would not have been illegal, and it would not be a story at all if Twitch reached out to advise Doc that the user was a minor… instead Twitch acted unilaterally and essentially burned the contract in the process. That would fit the same “facts” we’ve been told from all parties, but with a vastly different context that also matches the lack of criminal liability.
Most of the times when people get busted for “chatting” to kids online, it’s because the child is actually a law enforcement officer who has gotten the person to admit their intent in a way that isn’t legally questionable.
Even if twitch reported the allegations to law enforcement, it’s unlikely any prosecutor is going to bring up charges on a famous/wealthy person unless they have an open and shut case. Which is really rare outside of sting operations.
honestly the only way people will 100% be able to understand as to why they’d have to see the contract Twitch had with Guy at the time. I wouldn’t put it past twitch if they had a really loose and shitty contract. could simply be a matter of “we want you off the platform, we weren’t smart enough to have a solid mortality clause if any at all, so we have to pay out the rest of your term”.
and Guy could have been speaking the truth when he originally said 4 years ago he didn’t know why he was banned. They could have simply banned him and hoped he wouldn’t fight it. He threatens to take them to court for the money he feels he’s owed and rather than potentially expose the victim they just decided to settle.
I mean knowing Guy’s fanbase that’s the route I would have personally taken. The last thing I would want is some kid that Guy was sexting to be potentially exposed and then harassed or threatened by insane 30+ year old dudes. it’s happened before in cases like this.
Eh, it could be a multitude of reasons. It could be that they just had a bad contract. Even if there is a morality clause, how that morality clause is enacted may be dependent on actual charges being filed.
It is possible they had a reasonable concern about the situation, but it wasn’t drastic enough for them to legally terminate the contract. Wanting to save face in this scenario isn’t exactly too hard to imagine considering their demographics.
Or it could be that it was simply cheaper to pay the rest of the contract than it would to arbitrate in court. Or they may have feared themselves being further implicated during a proceeding if someone at twitch enabled or tried to cover it up.
Really, it could be just about anything.
So what would he do that’s not illegal but bad enough to get banned? What would he do that would also explain why people are saying he was messaging minors for a meet up? Why would Twitch pay out the contract?
So what would he do that’s not illegal but bad enough to get banned?
Twitch is a private platform, they could ban him for whatever reason they wanted.
Disney dropped Johnny Depp because of the Amber Heard thing, but what did he do to deserve that? Twitch dropping Dr. Disrespect was probably entirely about optics.
I don’t know anything about him, I don’t watch him or anything. But if he did break the law, he absolutely would have been arrested. AFAIK, sexual assault/misconduct or whatever with a minor doesn’t have a stipulation that the minor can choose to not press charges, thats up to the prosecuting attorney. They almost always press charges, and they should. So if something illegal did infact take place, he would have been arrested.
in 2017 Guy Beahm (drdisrespect) admitted to cheating on his wife on stream. Today in his twitter message he admits to inappropriately talking to a minor in…2017.
good lord I REALLY hope this dude wasn’t cheating on his wife with kids.
EDIT: Dr Disrespect has made a full statement.
THE TWITCH BAN
Hello, I’d like to make a quick statement…
Lets cut the fucking bullshit, as you know there’s no filter with me. I’ve always been up front and real with you guys on anything that I can be up front about, and I’m always willing to accept responsibility… which is why I’m here now.
First and foremost I do want to apologize to everyone in my community as well as those close to me, my team, and everyone at Midnight Society Game Studio.
A lot of people have been left in the dark about what happened yesterday with midnight society and I, and we made the painful decision collectively, to have me step down. Our team is full of incredibly talented and good people that have high career ambitions and families and i’d never want jeopardize the culture we have carefully crafted.
Everyone has been wanting to know why I was banned from twitch, but for reasons outside of my control, I was not allowed to say anything for the last several years. Now that two former twitch employees have publicly disclosed the accusations, I can now tell you my side of the story regarding the ban.
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. 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.
Now, from a moral standpoint I’ll absolutely take responsibility. I should have never entertained these conversations to begin with. That’s on me. That’s on me as an adult, a husband and a father. It should have never happened. I get it. I’m not perfect and I’ll fucking own my shit. This was stupid.
Now, with all this said, don’t get it fucking mistaken, I’ve seen all the remarks and labels being throw around so loosely. Social media is a destruction zone. I’m no fucking predator or pedophile. Are you kidding me? Anyone that truely knows me fucking knows where I stand on those things with those types of people. Fuck that. That’s a different level of disgust that I fucking hate even hearing about. Don’t be labeling me as the worst of the worst with your exaggerations. Get the fuck outta here with that shit.
But I think I’ve said what I needed to say regarding the ban itself. That’s it. That’s why twitch made the decision in 2020.
To my team, community, industry friends that have supported me, I apologize, I wish I could’ve said all this sooner. You guys have always showed me and my family love and support throughout all these years we love you guys like you can’t imagine. I have the fucking best community and circle. If any of this has made you uncomfortable, I get it. You don’t have to support me anymore but just know you have always been greatly appreciated.
But trust me when I say this…to all my haters that live and breath social media with zero real life experience, I don’t give a fuck about you.
Finally, if you’re uncomfortable with this entire statement and think I’m a piece of shit, that’s fine. But I’m not fucking going anywhere. I’m not the same guy that made this mistake all those years ago. I’m taking an extended vacation with my family as mentioned on stream and I’m coming back with a heavy weight off my shoulders.
They want me to disappear… yeah fucking right.
Such a fucking sleazebag. A few hours ago he’s said all accusations against him are completely false, but now he’s figured out there’s no coming back, because his money is going away, and he’s trying to pull the rug back. Fuck directly off.
Anyone who ever liked watching this narcissistic pedo is beyond my understanding. What he’s saying isn’t even damage control. He immediately turned it around, and made himself the victim
Zero receipts, entire essay with little to no point being made, starts off talking about how honest, responsible and how much he totally hates pedophiles. While posting an admission to sexting a minor, years after telling the world he’d sue Twitch for a ban that he let people speculate for years so he could avoid responsibility.
Unless he shows the world what exactly he texted the minor soon, this statement is one hell of a self inflicted wound for his case.
