Dr DisRespect's 2020 Twitch Ban

Submission 16,909

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About

Dr DisRespect's 2020 Twitch Ban refers to the streaming site Twitch permanently banning American streamer Dr DisRespect,, whose real name is Guy Beahm, from its platform on June 26th, 2020. The reason for the ban has not been made public and it has become notable for the secrecy surrounding it. The next day, on June 27th, Beahm said he does not know why he was banned. On July 16th, Beahm stated that he would not be returning to Twitch and that he was focusing on a comeback. On August 7th, he returned to a normal streaming schedule on YouTube.^[30] In June 2024, a former Twitch employee claimed that Dr DisRespect was allegedly banned for talking to and trying to meet up with underage women using a Twitch messaging app during a Twitch event.

Background

On June 26th, 2020, Twitter ^[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]

Though removed from Twitch after the ban, the last moments of Dr DisRespect's stream on June 26th, 2020, were uploaded by YouTuber^[19] Daily Twitch Fix. During the clip (seen below), Dr DisRespect abruptly ends the stream after thanking fans for watching, along with a noticeable change in demeanor 2 minutes in after looking at his phone. The video received over 918,000 views, 7,800 likes and 2,400 comments.

Developments

Later that day on June 26th, 2020, CNN reporter Shannon Liao tweeted^[5] Twitch’s statement on Dr DisRespect’s ban (seen below). The statement did not specify why the former Twitch streamer was banned.

Gaming news site Dexerto^[6] then reported that Twitch subscriptions to Dr DisRespect’s channel were being refunded and that his emotes were no longer available (shown below). This is in contrast to when former Twitch streamer IcePoseidon was permanently banned in 2017, as his emotes remained on the site until subscriptions to his channel ran out.^[7]

On June 27th, 2020, journalist Zach Bussey shared an Instagram ^[8] story posted by Dr Disrespect’s wife thanking fans for their support (seen below). Twenty minutes later, Slasher tweeted^[9] that Dr Disrespect’s Discord partnership had been severed.

Online Reactions

Many people online expressed their shock and confusion in response to the permaban. Dr DisRespect became a trending topic on Twitter soon after Slasher’s statement. Users speculated as to why he was banned and shared memes about it. Dr DisRespect’s Twitch ban was covered by various news outlets including Forbes,^[10] ESPN^[11] and The Verge.^[12]

On June 26th, 2020, Redditor^[13] Zavehi submitted a clip of Twitch streamer TimTheTatman commenting on Dr DisRespect’s ban to the subreddit r/LivestreamFail, gaining over 2,400 upvotes in 22 hours.

On June 26th, 2020, a post on r/OutOfTheLoop by Redditor^[14] Justadabwilldo asking about Dr DisRespect and why he was banned gained over 7,000 upvotes and 700 comments in 21 hours. Redditor Gemini_Dream then commented with the top reply at over 4,200 upvotes (seen below):

Answer: It's an on-going situation so it's currently not known why he's been banned. He himself hasn't put out comment yet and neither has Twitch, so at this time, it's hard to know. Some people believe that he might have had undisclosed advertising/sponsorship contracts that have been found out; if he was advertising sponsored products without disclosing that he was a paid sponsor, that would be an FCC violation and could be one possible reason why he was banned. Others have speculated that it might be a morality clause issue; he's had issues in the past including accusations of racism, and he also plainly got caught cheating on his wife. All of this is currently hearsay though. It's possible we'll never know the reason, if he chooses to never explain it.

Additionally, a post made an hour later on the r/drdisrespectlive sub by Redditor^[15] toyotaracer81 for discussing the ban gained more than 3,200 comments and 1,000 upvotes in 20 hours. Twitter later created a news event for the banning.^[16]

Dr DisRespect's Response

On June 27th, 2020, Dr Disrespect released a statement on Twitter^[17] to his fans and said that he does not know why he was banned. The tweet (seen below) received over 379,000 likes and 43,000 retweets.

Following the initial wave of news surrounding the banning, several of Dr DisRespect's sponsors initially removed their association with the streamer, but many of these were later reinstated. On June 27th, 2020, Redditor^[20] Rj323679 posted a tweet from GameRevolution's Twitter^[21] account (shown below) along with the title "Dr. Disrespect sponsors have reinstated their campaigns with him despite Twitch ban" to the r/LivestreamFail subreddit, receiving over 11,600 upvotes and 1,400 comments.

📰 #DrDisrespect sponsors have reinstated their ad campaigns with him despite his #Twitch ban, confusing everyone in the process.Find out more:https://t.co/qTnfFgpEIX
— GameRevolution by Mandatory (@Game_Revolution) June 27, 2020

On June 27th, Redditor^[22] DictatorInPerpetuity also noted on r/LivestreamFail that the GameFuel banner on its Twitter account was retroactively changed back to display Dr. DisRespect. The post received nearly 10,000 upvotes and 1,400 comments. Another post on Imgur^[23] with over 44,000 views shows the official Razer website reinstating Dr DisRespect's sponsored page after initially removing it.

Dr DisRespect's Interview

On July 16th, 2020, Dr DisRespect gave an out of character interview to PC Gamer as Guy Beahm. In the interview, Beahm stated that he would not be returning to Twitch and that he was focusing on a Dr DisRespect comeback. He clarified that there are legal reasons for why he hasn't said anything aside from his June 27th tweet. Regarding the final few minutes of his last Twitch stream, Beahm said that his breaking character was unrelated to him finding out about the Twitch ban and was more about the state of the world in 2020.^[24]

Around 5 hours after the interview, Dr DisRespect tweeted a mysterious video in which the camera slowly zooms in on him as cryptic lyrics are sung (shown below).^[25] The video received over 1.7 million views, 130,000 likes and 26,000 retweets in just over an hour.

pic.twitter.com/VLWcenTVjK

— Dr Disrespect (@drdisrespect) July 16, 2020

August 7th Return

In the afternoon of August 6th, 2020, Dr Disrespect posted a music video called "Red Skies" simultaneously to Twitter and YouTube, garnering over 2.7 million views on both platforms in six hours (shown below).^[26]^[27] Shortly after the video was posted, he tweeted out that he would be returning to YouTube the next day.^[28] Additionally, a livestream started on his channel that peaked at 325,000 viewers despite him being absent.^[29]

2024 Dr DisRespect Grooming Allegations

On June 21st, 2024, former Twitch employee Cody Conners posted a tweet^[31] in which he claimed to know the reason for Dr DisRespect's removal from the platform. According to the post, Doc had allegedly been using a now-defunct Twitch feature named Twitch Whispers to arrange a meet-up 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).

On June 22nd, Dr DisRespect^[32] responded to the allegations in a series of tweets where he denied any wrongdoing or engaging in anything "illegal," adding that his contract was paid out in full.

Some fans noted Dr DisRespect's vague response, speculating that he may have been texting an underage girl in a state where the legal age of consent is 16. X^[33] user @Gappy_V posted a meme about Dr DisRespect being a groomer on June 22nd, 2024 (seen below).