In his return to YouTube on September 6, Guy Beahm, the streamer best known as Dr Disrespect, addressed the circumstances behind his lifetime ban from Twitch to an audience of more than 200,000 viewers, saying he "wasn't sexting anyone" through Twitch's Whispers messaging system, and calling the former employee who leaked the allegations a "fucking rat."
Beahm began his statement by saying that the terms of his settlement with Twitch imposed a gag order on all parties involved, an order that held until a "disgruntled employee" leaked allegations about the cause for the suspension earlier this year. He also addressed YouTube's decision to demonetize his channel, saying that he will be able to reapply for monetization on September 25, and that he intends to do so.
Then he quickly changed tack, shifting to an aggressive defense, decrying the actions of the people behind the initial leak of the reasons for his suspension. "This was settled professionally," Beahm said, "And you, knowing how black and white the internet is, you decided, you fucking rat, to leak the reported reason Twitch banned me in 2020."
Beahm also asked, rhetorically, if the person behind the leak knows the "legal definition" of sexting, a point that seems uncomfortably central to Beahm's defense. "I do," he said. "And yeah, I used Twitch's Whispers, but trust me, I wasn't sexting anyone."
"I engage with my community. I engage with other streamers," Beahm said. "And through Twitch Whispers, I communicate with Twitch users. Conversations that consisted of a variety of playing games, gaming politics, content creation, random stuff. This was the extent of my communication with this Twitch user."
Beahm brought into question whether the person he communicated with was actually a minor at all. "[When] all these so-called journalists fired off your tweets, did any of you consider that this Twitch user may have been over the legal age of consent at the time of the messages? You didn't," he said. "Neither did any of these journalists, and neither did Twitch at the time of the ban."
This argument seems to hinge on the distinction between the United States age of majority (the distinction between a minor and an adult), which is 18 in most states and 19 or 21 in a select few, and the age of consent. The legal age of consent for sexual activity, which Beahm specifically referenced several times, is only 16 in 34 US states, and 17 in six other states. "Twitch makes this decision to terminate my contract and ban me while admitting they never investigated the age of consent in the jurisdiction where the user's messages were sent and received," he said, before shouting "Fucking unbelievable!"
Beahm also denied the allegation that he was attempting to meet up with the user at TwitchCon, saying, "I never intended to meet this user ever. We never made plans to meet at TwitchCon or anywhere else, and in fact we never met in person, ever."
Beahm claimed that Twitch found no legal wrongdoing in the exchange, a point he's made previously while noting that no criminal charges were ever brought against him, but that a conspiracy led by his former partner manager resulted in his channel's suspension anyway. "The reality is, they wanted to cut down the Doc, plain and simple," Beahm said.
Much of what Beahm said stands in contrast to the now-deleted statement he released in June, in which he admitted to exchanging "Twitch Whisper messages with an individual minor back in 2017" that "sometimes leaned too much in the direction of being inappropriate." You can debate the semantic differences between "inappropriate" and "sexting" as you see fit, but he clearly stated the other person involved was a minor at the time. Today he shifted to referencing the legal age of consent.
The pre-prepared speech came off as unhinged (even for Beahm), but it's also a not-unfamiliar tactic: Rather than acknowledging or addressing his own role in the matter, Beahm pointed the finger everywhere else—the leakers, the journalists, Twitch—and leaned heavily into the strict legality of the matter, as though the absence of criminal charges equates to the absence of wrongdoing.
While Beahm implied that there will be "repercussions for spewing lies" about him, it doesn't seem that any are in the offing. He made no mention of potential legal action against the leaker or Twitch, and implied that as far as he's concerned, the matter is behind him. "I'm not saying anything more about this," Beahm said. "Unless I need to, because trust me, I have more I haven't disclosed." He also indicated that he will not be publicly sharing the messages that resulted in his suspension.
"Everyone saying 'Show the messages.' What are we, in second grade?"
I've reached out to Twitch for comment on Dr Disrespect's statement and will update if I receive a reply.
