Further information has emerged regarding the 2020 Twitch ban of Guy Beahm, who is widely known as the popular streamer Dr Disrespect. A recent report from Rolling Stone includes fresh details provided by a former Twitch employee.
As Beahm stated in his extensive statement earlier this week, he had exchanged messages with a minor through Twitch’s now-defunct Whispers feature in 2017. He admitted that these conversations “sometimes leaned too much in the direction of being inappropriate.” However, the former Twitch employee now reveals that the minor had informed Beahm about their underage status, yet Beahm continued to send them “sexually graphic” messages, as reported by Rolling Stone.
The former Twitch employee stated, “There was no confusion. Messages sent after this was acknowledged were no less graphic and sexually explicit than before, and I believe the term ‘leaning too much in the direction of being inappropriate’ may not fully capture the severity of the situation.”
Furthermore, the former employee provided insights into Twitch’s internal response to the Whispers messages once the initial report was filed in 2020. They explained that the decision to permanently ban Beahm from the platform was made swiftly due to the seriousness of his behavior.
In addition, the employee disclosed that Twitch established an incident response team called “Gold Sparrow” to address allegations of streamer sexual misconduct after several incidents arose in June 2020.
Neither Twitch nor Beahm responded to IGN’s request for comment on the Rolling Stone report. Twitch has also refrained from making any public statements regarding the recent revelations about the 2020 ban.
Although YouTube, where Beahm currently streams, has not commented on the situation, Ryan Wyatt, the former global head of gaming partnerships at Google, informed Rolling Stone that Beahm was not offered a contract with YouTube due to the rumors surrounding the ban. Wyatt stated that YouTube employees were aware that the ban was related to inappropriate messages with a minor.
The situation was reignited last Friday when Cody Conners, a former Twitch employee, posted on X/Twitter that Beahm was banned nearly four years ago for engaging in inappropriate conversations with a minor and attempting to meet up with them at TwitchCon. Although Conners did not explicitly mention Beahm’s name in his post, subsequent reports confirmed that he was referring to the well-known streamer, and more details have emerged throughout the past week.
According to a source from Rolling Stone, it was Conners’ post that sparked other former Twitch employees to come forward and share their experiences in previous reports on The Verge and Bloomberg.
In response to Conners’ post and the subsequent reports, Beahm made several statements, with the most significant one being shared on Tuesday via X/Twitter. While he acknowledged that his conversations with the minor should never have taken place, he emphasized that no illegal activities occurred, no images were exchanged, and he never even met the individual in question. Beahm also mentioned his 2021 lawsuit against Twitch regarding the ban, which was resolved in 2022.
Following the revelations, several brands and partners, including Turtle Beach, 2K, and the San Francisco 49ers, have severed ties with Beahm. Additionally, Midnight Society, the game studio co-founded by Beahm, conducted its own investigation into the allegations and subsequently terminated its relationship with him.
