Guy Beahm, the popular streamer best known as Dr Disrespect, has issued a lengthy statement regarding the recent allegations that have emerged regarding his ban from Twitch in 2020.
It’s Beahm’s most substantive response yet to the situation, which flared up again last week after a former Twitch employee said on X/Twitter that he had been banned from the streaming platform for inappropriate messages with a minor via the Twitch Whispers feature, a claim corroborated by reports in The Verge and Bloomberg. Beahm’s response addresses that allegation, as well as his recent firing from the game studio he co-founded, Midnight Society.
THE TWITCH BAN
Hello, I would like to make a short statement..
Let’s stop this damn nonsense, because you know there’s no filter with me. I’ve always been honest with you about everything I can be honest about, and I’m always willing to accept responsibility… which…
—Dr. Disrespect (@DrDisrespect) June 25, 2024
In the statement, Beahm admits that there were indeed ‘twitch whisper messages with an individual minor’ in 2017. (The word “little” was removed from the original version of the post, but then added back).
“If there were any real intentions behind these messages, the answer is absolutely no,” he adds. “They were informal, mutual conversations that sometimes veered too much towards inappropriate, but nothing more.”
He goes on to say that no charges have been filed, and reiterates that “nothing illegal has happened.”
“Now I absolutely take responsibility from a moral point of view,” he says. “I should never have had these conversations in the first place. That’s on me. That’s on me as an adult, as a husband and as a father. It should never have happened. I get it. I’m not perfect and I’ll fucking own it are.” my shit. This was stupid.”
However, Beahm insists he is “not a fucking predator or a pedophile,” and that despite a previously announced “extended vacation,” he apparently plans to continue streaming.
“They want me to disappear… yeah, damn right,” he concludes.
IGN has reached out to Twitch, which has not commented on the situation in recent days, for comment.
As for his departure from Midnight Society, Beahm says the decision to part ways with the studio was something he and the team made “collectively.” Shortly after Beahm posted his statement, studio co-founder Robert Bowling published his own personal statement on X/Twitter, indicating that the statement had not gone through a PR or legal department.
“If you send an inappropriate message to a minor, I cannot work with you,” Bowling wrote. ‘Period of time. I promised to act only on the basis of facts, and I have done so.’
This is a statement from me personally. It does not reflect any of my companies and has not undergone any regulatory or PR approvals.
If you send a minor a message in an inappropriate manner. I can’t work with you.
Period of time.
I promised to act only on facts, and I did.
— Robert Bowling (@fourzerotwo) June 25, 2024
Gaming headset and accessories company Turtle Beach also announced earlier on Tuesday, before Beahm posted his statement, that it would be ending its partnership with the streamer.
The situation surrounding Beahm’s four-year ban from Twitch came to a head last Friday, June 21, thanks to an X/Twitter post from former Twitch Account Director of Strategic Partnerships Cody Conners (Disclosure: Conners briefly worked at IGN in 2011). Conners did not mention Beahm by name, but it was widely believed and later confirmed in The Verge and Bloomberg reports that he was referring to the popular streamer when he wrote: “He was banned for being caught sexting a minor in the then existing Twitch whispers product. He tried to meet her at TwitchCon.”
Conners’ post became massive news and shed light on Beahm’s mysterious ban that was imposed almost exactly four years ago. Twitch provided no details about the reason for the ban, and Beahm himself claimed not to have been initially informed why. He would sue Twitch in 2021 over the ban, and the legal dispute was resolved in 2022.
In the days following Conners’ post, Beahm had made a number of statements, but none as substantial as Tuesday’s (he claims he can offer more information “now that two former Twitch employees have publicly disclosed the allegations”) . In previous statements, he continued to emphasize that “no wrongdoing was found” regarding his dealings with Twitch.
You can read Beahm’s most recent statement in full below:
Thumbnail credit: Michael Tullberg/Getty Images
Alex Stedman is a senior news editor at IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.