Dr DisRespect Grooming Allegations

Overview

Dr DisRespect Grooming Allegations refers to the accusations against streamer Dr DisRespect that broke online in late June 2024, which claimed to explain the mysterious reason that resulted in his 2020 Twitch ban. The allegations, made by a former Twitch employee as a purported confirmation of why he was banned, revolve around a defunct Twitch messaging feature in 2017, alleging that Dr DisRespect was "sexting" or grooming a minor and attempting to meet them at TwitchCon. Due to the accusations going viral, discourse about the initial ban and Dr DisRespect's actions since the ban were reignited on social media in mid-2024 despite the claims being unconfirmed and Dr DisRespect pushing back against them. In the following days, Dr DisRespect then confirmed the allegations in a response while multiple brands and companies associated with him distanced themselves from the streamer.

Background

On June 26th, 2020, Twitter / X ^[1] bot StreamerBans announced that Dr DisRespect had been banned from Twitch. According to PC Gamer,^[2] the reason for the ban was unknown at the time. Shortly after, independent journalist Rod "Slasher" Breslau posted to his Twitter^[3] that Dr DisRespect’s banning was permanent. He replied to his own tweet adding that it was unrelated to Twitch’s recent DMCA issues (shown below).^[4]

Cody Conners Tweet and Claims

On June 21st, 2024, former Twitch employee Cody Conners, who retired from the company, posted a tweet^[5] in which he explicitly stated the reason for Dr Disrespect's removal from the platform. According to the post, Doc had allegedly been using a now-defunct Twitch feature called Twitch Whispers in 2017 to arrange a meetup between himself and an underage female at the next TwitchCon. Conners also alleged that Dr DisRespect exchanged explicit messages with the underage girl and that Twitch employees saw the interactions in "plain text" (shown below).

The tweet from Conners on June 21st quickly garnered significant attention, receiving over 27.9 million views, 43,000 likes, 5,200 retweets and 2,900 replies in three days. Defenders of Dr Disrespect were quick to note, however, that Cody Conners had previously stated that he was in possession of the information relating to Doc's ban, and was using it as a marketing tool to sell concert tickets for his band. On June 23rd, 2024, the X user @CommentCopped^[11] posted a collage where Cody had made two previous posts dated back to January of 2023 in which he claimed that he would reveal the reason for the ban if his show was sold out of tickets, with a caption casting doubt into the authenticity of the allegations (shown below).

Online Reactions

Later that night on June 21st, 2024, Doc then responded to the post^[6] with a reply in which he stated that the contract he had freshly signed with Twitch prior to his removal was paid out in full and that no wrongdoing was acknowledged and everything was settled years ago (shown below). His response tweet received over 10.5 million views and 6,300 likes in three days.

Other commenters were quick to note that Doc's response did not deny any of the allegations made by Cody Conner in his tweet and that instead, it sounded closer to an admission that he got away with it (examples shown below).

This was followed up by a post^[7] the following day, June 22nd, in which Doc claimed that he was under legal obligations in relation to the incident and settlement he received from Twitch, but he wanted to once again reaffirm that there was no wrongdoing and everything was probed and investigated and he received his full payout (shown below).

Memetic Reactions

Due to the post and accusations gaining virality, discussion on the ban was reignited in late June 2024, with several people making memes relating Doc to Drake due to the recent Kendrick feud and people calling Drake a groomer.

For example, on June 21st, 2024, X user @Gappy_V^[8] uploaded a scene from Smiling Friends in which Pim yells that he loves kids, with Doc's face put on top (shown below). The meme received over 16,000 likes in three days.

Others began to post footage of an interview that took place two months before the accusations in which Dan Saltman, the founder of TinyChat, outright stated that he heard in Rust approximately two years ago that Doc was allegedly banned for messaging underage girls.

This clip, featuring a big reaction from the streamer Destiny, started to go viral on June 22nd, with the repost made by X user @BlGGESTHATER^[9] receiving over 1.7 million views in one day (shown below).

On June 26th, 2025, YouTuber and rapper PACKGOD TV uploaded a remix of Kendrick Lamar's song "Not Like Us" with lyrics altered to reference Dr DisRespect and the controversy, receiving over 331,000 views and 38,000 likes in roughly 24 hours (seen below).

Developments

Removal From Midnight Society

On June 24th, 2024, the gaming company co-founded by Doc, Midnight Society, posted an official message stating that after hearing about the allegations on Friday, June 21st, they had done their own independent investigation and determined to cut ties with Doc.

The post, which quickly spread due to the language used and the severity of removing a cofounder, caused a lot of people to conclude that the accusations might be true, with the official message from Midnight Society^[10] receiving over 5.1 million views in nine hours (shown below).

Dr DisRespect Confession / Response

On June 25th, 2024, Dr DisRespect made a post on X / Twitter in which he told his side of the story, including an admission that he did, in fact, direct message a minor back in 2017. This post,^[12] seen as a total confession of guilt by many online, quickly began to be used as further fuel against Doc by some users, especially on platforms like X.

The key part of the long-form post, which was screenshotted and spread across social media en masse that day, was the paragraph in which he admits that he did have Twitch Whisper messages with a minor but denies any ill intent or that they met up IRL (excerpt shown below). Doc's tweet received over 84.4 million views in roughly 24 hours. Many users also noted the edits to the tweet, which removed the mentions of "minor" before adding them back in.^[16]

Two hours prior to this June 25th confession, however, an anonymous email that was claimed to be from a former Twitch employee, similar to Cody Conners, began to circulate on social media. In the unverified letter, posted by Twitter user @PapaStanimus,^[13] it is alleged that Doc was messaging an underage person but that the chats themselves were clean and it was only an implication of wrongdoing — adding that Twitch was purportedly quick to settle the case with Doc because the staff members within Twitch broke data protection laws in their pursuit of having him removed from the site.

The unverified email ends by claiming that there were allegedly documents signed on either side that prevented the truth from being fully told, but Doc is looking into legal action now, with detractors of Doc calling the email "copium" (shown below, click to enlarge).

Fallout / Reactions From Fellow Streamers

In the wake of Dr DisRespect's confession post on June 25th, 2024, two longtime associates of his, Nickmercs[14] and TimTheTatMan[15], both posted videos in which they appeared to be outside and shirtless, talking about Doc and the allegations before saying that they can't condone messaging a minor. This led to further talk within their respective fan communities, as they shared fanbases, with some agreeing with the two while others defended Dr Disrespect as reactions continued to spread that day (shown below).

Search Interest

External References