Dr Disrespect’s Twitch ban, explained

Dr Disrespect — aka Herschel “Guy” Beahm — was one of Twitch’s top streamers until he was suddenly banned in June 2020. Now, we know what happened. As confirmed in a lengthy statement from Beahm himself, he sent private messages on Twitch to a minor that he says “sometimes leaned too much in the direction of being inappropriate”:

The statement followed former Twitch employees explaining in social media posts and speaking to The Verge about why Twitch suddenly broke things off with Beahm, which was based on the messages he sent using its now-removed Whispers feature.

Here’s the latest news on Dr Disrespect and the reasons for his Twitch ban.

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  Game studio co-founded by Dr Disrespect ‘immediately’ terminating relationship with the streamer

  

  Photo by Kevin Sabitus / Getty Images

  Midnight Society, the game studio co-founded by Dr Disrespect, has terminated its relationship with the streamer. In a post on X, the studio wrote, “On Friday evening, we became aware of an allegation against one of our co-founder’s Guy Beahm aka Dr Disrespect.”

  That is the day and time that former Twitch employee Cody Conners posted a tweet about the alleged reason for Beahm’s permanent ban, saying it was for “sexting a minor in the then existing Twitch whispers product.” Robert Bowling, a former Infinity Ward developer and fellow Midnight Society co-founder, posted shortly after, saying, “I’m now aware and I’m dealing with it... I landed from Stockholm, reconnected, saw the tweet and immediately began an investigation to learn everything I need to know so I can ensure a full follow through.”

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  Twitch banned Dr Disrespect after viewing messages sent to a minor, say former employees

  

  Dr Disrespect at a golf tournament in January 2024.

  Photo by Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images

  Twitch abruptly banned one of its biggest stars — Herschel “Guy” Beahm, better known by his persona Dr Disrespect — in 2020 without a word of explanation. Now, four years after Beahm’s permanent ban, two former Twitch employees have come forward to describe events they say contributed to his removal from the platform.

  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.

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  Dr Disrespect officially returns to streaming

  

  Photo by Bobby Quillard

  Guy “Dr Disrespect” Beahm has returned to streaming, this time on YouTube. His first stream goes live tomorrow at 3pm EDT. The controversial streamer was permanently banned from Twitch in late June, for reasons that are still unknown.

  Though he’d signed an exclusive deal with Twitch back in March, Beahm does not have a similar arrangement with YouTube. Sources close to Beahm say that he plans to experiment with other platforms like Facebook Gaming and his own personal website, the Champions Club.

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  Weeks later, Dr Disrespect still won’t say what happened with Twitch

  

  Photo by Bobby Quillard

  Dr Disrespect has spoken up for the first time in over two weeks in conversations with multiple news outlets, but the streamer declined to comment on why he might have been banned from Twitch and provided only vague details about what might come next.

  The streamer, real name Herschel “Guy” Beahm, told The Washington Post that he wasn’t interested in “engaging crazy speculation” about the reasons behind his apparent ban. He’s “considering” a lawsuit against Twitch, according to PC Gamer, and he’s starting to figure out what the Doc’s return will look like. He also said he took a short vacation to the beach. “I’ve been dealing with a lot of stress and anxiety,” Beahm said.

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  Dr Disrespect is gone and Twitch won’t say why

  

  Photo Illustration by Alex Castro | Photography by Bobby Quillard

  Dr Disrespect disappeared from Twitch this afternoon, with his account vanishing from the site, leading to rumors that he had been banned. The disappearance comes two days after Twitch said it would begin issuing permanent suspensions for streamers as it cracked down on accusations of harassment and sexual misconduct.

  Twitch would not confirm that it had banned Dr Disrespect, why he might have been banned, or whether he might be permanently banned. Twitch signed Dr Disrespect to an exclusive two year contract back in March for an undisclosed but “life-changing” amount of money. The streamer had also made a deal with a production company to create an animated TV series around his character.

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  Twitch reckons with sexual assault as it begins permanently suspending streamers

  

  Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

  When streamer Samantha Wong told Twitch that she had been sexually harassed by another person connected to the Twitch community, the report went all the way to the top. A Twitch VP who has since left the company, Justin Wong, says he escalated her allegations to Twitch’s CEO, the head of Twitch HR, and a VP who managed Twitch’s relationship with the accused person. “All assured me it would be handled,” he wrote on Twitter.

  But a year later, the accused person was still being featured by Twitch. According to Samantha Wong, who streams under the name Sampai, the person she’d reported for harassment was not only still allowed to attend Twitch events, but he was even given the opportunity to appear on segments on Twitch’s official channel. “You, as a company, minimized and dismissed my sexual harassment,” she wrote on Twitter.

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