Dr Disrespect claims Twitch ban came over messages to minor: 'I'm not a predator'

Popular video game personality Guy Beahm, also known as Dr. Disrespect, responded Tuesday to allegations that he sent sexually explicit messages to a minor on Twitch, the platform that banned him for unexplained reasons in 2020.

In a post on

Beahm, 42, had around 4 million followers and a lucrative streaming contract on Twitch at the time of his ban. He now streams to 4.73 million YouTube subscribers. Twitch and YouTube did not respond to requests for comment. (Twitch is owned by Amazon, whose founder Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post.)

The explicit messages and their connection to the ban were reported this week by Bloomberg News and The Verge, based on accounts from anonymous sources with knowledge of the matter. The reports follow a similar account posted Friday by Cody Conners, a former Twitch employee who did not name Beahm in the post.

In his Tuesday post, Beahm said in part: “Nothing illegal happened, no photos were shared, no crimes were committed, I never even met the individual.” » According to the edit history of his post on

“Now, from a moral standpoint, I will absolutely take responsibility for this,” Beahm wrote in his post. “I should never have had these conversations in the first place. It’s for me. It’s up to me as an adult, husband and father. He added that he was neither a “predator nor a pedophile”. Attempts to reach Beahm on Tuesday were unsuccessful.

In a 2020 interview with The Washington Post, shortly after the ban, Beahm claimed Twitch’s decision was “a total shock” and said he didn’t know why he was kicked off the platform. He said in 2022 that he had settled a lawsuit against the company, adding that “neither party admits any wrongdoing.”

Since the allegation surfaced Friday, some of Beahm’s business partnerships have been dissolved. He co-founded a video game studio in 2021 called Midnight Society. On Monday, the studio said on On Tuesday, popular gaming accessory company Turtle Beach confirmed that it was not continuing its partnership with him.

Beahm’s disclosure ends a four-year mystery to the public over why Twitch broke its multi-year contract with him in 2020. The deal was an emblem of an era when streaming platforms were beginning to sign content creators like athletes for exclusive multi-million dollar contracts. Beahm’s contract only lasted a few months before Twitch cut ties.