Herschel "Guy" Beahm IV, widely known by his online moniker Dr Disrespect, has confirmed that his Twitch ban was a result of him messaging "an individual minor" in "inappropriate" ways. The move saw the YouTube star shed some light on his unceremonious Twitch exit following four years' worth of speculation about the circumstances that led to it.
June 26 will mark the fourth anniversary of the content creator's Twitch ban, which prompted him to sue the Amazon-owned streaming platform before settling with it in early 2022. On June 21, former Twitch official Cody Conners took to Twitter to claim that Dr Disrespect was permanently banned for "sexting a minor" via Twitch Whispers, a private messaging feature that was discontinued in 2022, shortly following Beahm's settlement with the company.
Dr Disrespect Admits To 'Inappropriate' Conversations With a Minor 3 Years Before His Twitch Ban
Dr Disrespect initially denied any "wrongdoing" over his Twitch ban in a promptly-issued response that saw him point out how the circumstances leading up to his exit from the platform had long been "probed and settled." In a reversal of that move, the streamer posted a lengthy statement three days later, on June 25, admitting that he had indeed shared "Twitch Whisper messages with an individual minor." He characterized these communications as "conversations that sometimes leaned too much in the direction of being inappropriate." While the initial theory following Conners's whistleblowing was that the purported messages were shared in 2020, shortly before Dr Disrespect was banned, the streamer revealed that the conversations actually happened in 2017.
Although Beahm conceded that he never should have interacted with a minor in such a way to begin with, he insisted that there were no "real intentions" behind his messages, and that the two never met. This was likely a response to Conners's claim that the streamer was messaging the underage person in question with the goal of trying to meet up with them at TwitchCon. Dr Disrespect's statement was viewed nearly 11 million times within 90 minutes of going live on Twitter. Numerous users have criticized him for editing out the mention of a "minor" from the tweet, after which he edited it back in.
Dr Disrespect Claims His Midnight Society Exit Was a Mutual Decision
The statement also reflected on Midnight Society's decision to cut ties with Dr Disrespect. The game development studio that he founded in 2021 with the goal of developing an NFT extraction shooter called Deadrop announced that it's terminating its relationship with the streamer on June 24, citing a need to "maintain" its "principles and standards." But Dr Disrespect's follow-up saw him claim that the "painful decision" to have him step down was made "collectively." He also apologized to the studio's staff, his community, and loved ones as part of the move.
Dr Disrespect Plans To Return To Streaming
Finally, Dr Disrespect reflected on his newly announced "vacation" from streaming, characterizing it as "extended" but also temporary. "I'm coming back with a heavy weight off my shoulders," he concluded, all the while denouncing the label of a "predator" that some social media users have been throwing his way since this story first broke out.
