Popular Twitch streamer Dr DisRespect, whose real name is Herschel “Guy” Beahm IV, has been banned from the streaming platform for an undisclosed reason. Beahm’s channel, which boasted over 4 million followers, has been removed from the service. Twitch is also refunding subscribers to Beahm’s channel and has removed his emotes. His Twitch partner status has allegedly been revoked.
Kotaku reports that the ban is permanent, citing multiple sources, including “three sources close to Twitch.” Industry insider Rod “Slasher” Breslau corroborates the report, confirming that the ban is indeed permanent and that it doesn’t have to do with a DMCA copyright violation, which has been a reason Twitch has banned streamers in the past.
Shannon “ShannonZKiller” Plante, another popular Twitch streamer, said on Twitter (via GameSpot) that she’d heard from her “sources” that “Doc is indeed done, and not just on Twitch. I know why and cannot say. But this is serious.” Plante later deleted the tweet.
Twitch confirmed that Beahm had been banned from the platform in a statement to IGN, but would not give a reason for the streamer’s removal: “As is our process, we take appropriate action when we have evidence that a streamer has acted in violation of our Community Guidelines or Terms of Service. These apply to all streamers regardless of status or prominence in the community.”
Beahm has yet to address the ban on Twitter, where he has 1.5 million followers, although a pinned tweet posted on June 22 confirmed that Beahm had planned to stream today, starting at 10 am PT. The streamer did go live yesterday, according to IGN. Beahm is currently best known for streaming Call of Duty and Apex Legends.
The ban comes just months after Beahm signed a multi-year exclusivity deal with Twitch, locking him into the platform at a time when other popular streamers like Ninja and Shroud had been poached by Microsoft for its own Mixer streaming service, which was recently shut down. It’s unclear if Beahm’s deal with Twitch has also been terminated.
This is the second time Beahm has been banned from Twitch. He was first banned in 2019 for filming from a bathroom in the LA Convention Center during E3. Beahm’s account was reinstated a few weeks later.
The ban also comes the same week that Twitch announced in a blog post its commitment to creating a safer streaming community after several high-profile streamers were accused of sexual misconduct, including popular Destiny 2 streamer Lono “SayNoToRage” as well as Tom “Syndicate” Cassell. Following a week of allegations in late June, Twitch confirmed that it would begin investigating and banning streamers it found had violated its community guidelines. Streamers iAmSp00n, BlessRNG, WarwitchTV, DreadedCone, and Wolv21 have all been banned as a result, according to Polygon.
“We are reviewing each case that has come to light as quickly as possible, while ensuring appropriate due diligence as we assess these serious allegations,” said Twitch in the blog post. “We’ve prioritized the most severe cases and will begin issuing permanent suspensions in line with our findings immediately.”
It’s important to note that there’s no evidence that Beahm’s ban is related to sexual misconduct.
We’ll update this story as we learn more.