Dr Disrespect Twitch ban allegations timeline explained
Dr DisrespectFour years after Dr Disrespect was mysteriously banned on Twitch, allegations surfaced from an ex-employee about what actually happened. Days later, he announced he was taking a streaming break and confirmed the claims were true. Here’s everything that has happened so far.
Back in June of 2020, Dr Disrespect, real name Guy Beahm, was suddenly banned on Twitch after signing an eight-figure contract with the platform. The streamer claimed he didn’t know why he had been permanently suspended.
Esports journalist ‘Slasher,’ who originally confirmed the ban was permanent, claimed that although multiple sources told him why Doc had been banned, the seriousness of the allegations prevented him from going public.
Weeks later, Doc moved to YouTube and revealed that he’d found out why he was banned. The streamer also announced that he was suing Twitch for their decision. Both parties ended up settling their legal dispute, with neither side admitting to any wrongdoing.
Years passed, and the ban became a distant, yet ever-looming afterthought among viewers. However, as the four-year anniversary of the infamous ban drew near, an ex-Twitch staff member made a series of disturbing claims against him.
Ex-Twitch employee accuses Dr Disrespect of sending DMs to a minor
On June 22, 2024, former Twitch employee Cody Conners posted to X with claims against an unnamed streamer.
“He got banned because got caught s*xting a minor in the then-existing Twitch whispers product. He was trying to meet up with her at TwitchCon,” he alleged. “The powers that be could read in plain text.”
Many believed this was referencing Dr Disrespect, and The Verge was able to speak to a different former employee who corroborated the allegation.
They further revealed there was a “significant” amount of time between the messages sent from Doc to the alleged victim and the actual moderation report about those messages.
Dr Disrespect responds to Twitch ban allegations
Shortly after the claims went viral, Dr Disrespect responded to streaming reporter Jake Lucky denouncing the former employee’s post.
“I get it, it’s a hot topic but this has been settled, no wrongdoing was acknowledged and they paid out the whole contract,” he wrote.
One day later, the streamer shared more information, claiming that he was limited in what he could say because of his settlement with Twitch.
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” he insisted. “All this has been probed and settled, nothing illegal, no wrongdoing was found, and I was paid.”
Doc would return to streaming on Monday, June 24 to play Elden Ring. At first, he maintained his innocence while briefly addressing the allegations once more.
“For those who are looking at me to expand on this weekend, not gonna. I already said what I needed to say. I don’t give a f**k about this guy,” he said.
However, later in the broadcast, Doc appeared to receive a message on his phone, shifting the tone of the stream completely. A few minutes later, he announced he would be taking an indefinite hiatus from broadcasting.
Dr Disrespect announces streaming break
As Dr Disrespect ended his stream, he began to discuss taking a break from social media and content creation as a whole, claiming he was feeling “burnt out.”
“I think, first and foremost though, I did have a bit of a planned vacation coming up, but I might extend that starting today. It is what it is. People get fatigued. To be honest, I don’t know how long my vacation is, but maybe I extend that. We’ll see,” he said.
He also hinted at taking a step back from his game studio, Midnight Society, which had been investigating the allegations against him.
Midnight Society and Turtle Beach cut ties with Dr Disrespect
Shortly after Beahm went offline, the studio confirmed they were parting ways with him.
In a post on X, Midnight Society explained its decision: “We assumed his innocence and began speaking with parties involved. And in order to maintain our principles and standards as a studio and individuals, we needed to act. For this reason, we are terminating our relationship with Guy Beahm immediately.”
“While these facts are difficult to hear and even more difficult to accept, it is our duty to act with dignity on behalf of all individuals involved, especially the fifty-five developers and families we have employed along with our community of players.”
Players and fans of the streamer, however, believed Midnight Society’s upcoming game, DEADROP, is “dead” without Doc’s involvement, and accused the studio of acting without presenting evidence to the public.
Midnight Society wasn’t the only company to cut ties with Beahm. On June 25, fans noticed that Turtle Beach appeared to remove Dr Disrespect merchandise from their website, with his old links leading to their homepage, instead.
In a statement to IGN, the company confirmed it too had cut ties with the streamer: “We will not be continuing our partnership with Guy Beahm / Dr Disrespect.”
More Twitch staff corroborate allegations
On June 25, Bloomberg published a report after speaking to additional sources with knowledge about the ban.
They claim that Doc had “exchanged sexually explicit messages with a minor” through Twitch’s chat feature and had asked her about plans to attend TwitchCon.
A complaint was later filed with Twitch through its reporting system, eventually leading to Dr Disrespect’s ban.
The report also claims that Discord chose to remove the streamer from its partnership program following the ban after speaking with a “trusted industry peer.”
Dr Disrespect confirms interaction with a minor
On June 25, 2024, Dr Disrespect confirmed that he had an interaction with a minor through Twitch’s whispers function.
“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,” Dr Disrespect claimed.
He went on to say that he’d never physically met up with the person he sent messages to, and that he was never criminally charged for his actions.
“From a moral standpoint, I’ll absolutely take responsibility,” Beahm continued. “I should have never entertained these conversations to begin with. That’s on me.”
The Doc then explained that this was the reasoning behind Twitch banning him from the platform in 2020, claiming he wanted to come out with the information sooner. And, although he’s taking an indefinite break from streaming at this time, he does have plans to come back.
“If you’re uncomfortable with this entire statement and think I’m a piece of sh*t, that’s fine. But I’m not f*cking 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.”
Streamers condemn Dr Disrespect as more companies cut ties
Immediately following Doc’s confession, streamers, including his closest friends like NICKMERCS and TimTheTatman, said they “can’t support” him anymore.
Kai Cenat, Pokimane, QTCinderella, KSI, Valkyrae, and more shared their disgust for Dr Disrespect’s actions on social media.
On June 26, The San Francisco 49ers NFL team announced that they wouldn’t work with the YouTuber in upcoming seasons.
“We take these developments seriously and will not be working with him going forward,” they told Digiday.
Furthermore, the store for Guy Beahm’s Black Steel Bourbon was taken offline, with the page instead reading “Sorry, this store is currently unavailable.”
NBA 2K is also no longer working with Dr Disrespect after adding him into the game in its 2K23 installment. In a statement to Dexerto, 2K confirmed that NBA 2K24 would be removing all of Dr Disrespect’s animations in a patch and they would not be working with him in future games.
Dr Disrespect reportedly knew he was sending minor explicit DMs
On June 27, esports journalist ‘Slasher’ reported that Dr Disrespect had continued to send a minor explicit DMs even after learning she was underage.
“I recall that Dr Disrespect was made aware by the individual that they were underage during the conversation, after which he indicated that this was no problem and continued on,” a former Twitch employee said.
The employee also cast doubt on Doc’s claims that his conversations with the minor only “sometimes leaned too much in the direction of being inappropriate.”
YouTube/DrDisrespect“There was no confusion. Messages sent after this was acknowledged were no less graphic and in sexually explicit nature than before, and I think more than the categorization of ‘leaning too much in the direction of being inappropriate’ might indicate,” they added.
According to the ex-staff member, the decision to terminate Doc was quick “due to the severity of the behavior.”
YouTube demonetizes Dr Disrespect
On June 27, YouTube restricted Dr Disrespect’s channel by pausing premium memberships and halting recurring payments.
Additionally, YouTube confirmed that his content had been fully demonetized, effectively preventing the disgraced creator from making money.
“We have suspended monetization on Dr Disrespect’s channel for violating our Creator Responsibility policy,” a YouTube rep told PCGamer, citing the site’s guidelines that cover behavior both on and off the Google-owned platform.
Kick, meanwhile, hasn’t ruled out pre-emptively banning Doc should he decide to stream there once he returns. Kick’s Head of Strategic Partnerships, Andrew Santamaria, said it was “too soon” to make a decision, but noted that he doesn’t see the streamer joining the platform to begin with.
Dr Disrespect accuses Twitch of orchestrating his ban
On September 6, Dr Disrespect finally returned to YouTube for the first time since June and dropped a series of bombshell allegations, claiming that Twitch had a vendetta against him.
In the broadcast, the streamer alleged that staff member Cody Conners never had first-hand knowledge of the incident, while denying having any intention of planning to meet up with the individual.
“Twitch’s trust and safety team internally admitted that the whisper messages were not sexting. [We] never exchanged graphic texts and images,” he said.
Beahm further claimed that his ex-partner manager never supported him, saying he actively tried to sabotage his relationship with Twitch after he resigned to the platform.
According to Doc, his former partner manager supposedly urged the underage person he had messaged to report the DMs, despite the user not wanting to. Doc said that, when no issues were found in the report, the partner manager contacted a friend on Twitch’s Law Enforcement Response team, who then picked out “out-of-context” excerpts from the Whisper messages while in a call with the LER Director.
Dr Disrespect also stated he would be reapplying for a YouTube Partnership on September 25 to regain monetization.
Ex-Twitch staff responds to Dr Disrespect’s “repercussions” threat
Following Dr Disrespect’s return stream, Cody Conners responded to Doc’s threat of “repercussions” for leaking info about the Twitch ban.
In his September return stream, Doc claimed he never planned to meet up with the individual he had been messaging.
“Did you not know the repercussions about spilling lies about the two-time? Do you not know the repercussions of accusing me, Cody Conners?” Doc asked.
In response, Conners posted a series of tweets suggesting that he wasn’t in danger of any legal ramifications. His first post was screenshot of ChatGPT asking: “What kind of lawyer do I need when I am definitely not getting sued?”
He followed this up one day later: “Siri, when do I need to leave for the courthouse if I don’t have to go?”
So far, it’s not clear if Dr Disrespect is planning on taking more legal action against Twitch and its former employees, but the streamer has said he has “more to disclose.”