The streamer was suddenly banned without reason in 2020.

In 2020, Twitch quickly and rather unexpectedly banned one of their biggest streamers, Herschel "Guy" Beahm, also known as Dr Disrespect. For years, nobody would say why Dr Disrespect was banned from the platform. Now, almost exactly four years later, two former Twitch employees have come forth with information on the ban.

In speaking with The Verge, one former Twitch employee said that Beahm used Twitch's private messaging system, Whispers, to "exchange messages with a minor and initiate a conversation about meeting up at TwitchCon." The employee, who requested to remain anonymous due to a potential risk to their career, used to work on Twitch's trust and safety team in 2020 when Beahm's ban was issued.

This same source told The Verge that 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 were filed, but they weren't able to recall how much time." However, when Twitch did get around to finally investigating the reports, they did an investigation and ultimately banned Beahm from the platform.

Another source that corroborates this information is Cody Conners, another former Twitch employee that worked as part of the strategic partnerships team. Conners took to Twitter to state that Beahm "got banned because (sic) got caught sexting a minor in the then existing Twitch whispers product." He continues on to say, "He (presumed to be Beahm) was trying to meet up with her at TwitchCon. The powers that be could read in plain text."

As The Verge notes, Beahm's ban from Twitch came very shortly after "Twitch updated their sexual harassment policy to punish offenders with permanent suspensions."

Since these revelations came out, Beahm has issued two short statements. Beahm first notes that "no wrongdoing was acknowledged."


His second statement says, "I didn't do anything wrong, all this has been probed and settled, nothing illegal, no wrongdoing was found, and I was paid." Well, good thing he was paid, right? Beahm's bizarre remark about getting paid aside, in neither of Beahm's responses does he directly deny the allegations of sexting a minor or making plans to meet up with a minor at TwitchCon.

Beahm was banned almost exactly four years ago this week. Prior to this week, nobody working at Twitch has come forth with information on why Beahm was banned. This has led many to believe that a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for a period of four years has now expired. Several insiders and close friends of Beahm also stated that they knew the reason for the ban but never actually stated the reason to the public. It is unclear if these people actually knew or were simply chasing clout.

There was an immense amount of secrecy regarding Beahm's ban. At the time of Twitch ban, he had roughly 4 million followers and had just signed a seven-figure, two-year contract with the platform. Neither party stated the reason for the ban, with Beahm even telling The Washington Post that Twitch allegedly never gave him a reason for the ban.

One year after the ban, Beahm stated that he was suing Twitch over monetary damages. The lawsuit was eventually resolved, with Beahm posting an image that states, "I have resolved my legal dispute with Twitch. No party admits to any wrongdoing."

There are several questions that arise from these latest statements: If Beahm was indeed in contact with a minor and was sexting them or planning to meet up at an event, were the authorities contacted at any point? Related, how much would Twitch's image be damaged if their platform allowed sexual predators to easily solicit minors? Is this why matters were quietly settled with all parties? If the statements issued by these former Twitch employees were not accurate, why would Beahm not directly deny the specific allegations instead of using carefully chosen wording?

There are just so many questions here that we may never get actual answers to.