As has been hinted at for several weeks, Dr. Disrespect, who admitted to inappropriately contacting a minor, has returned to streaming on YouTube. With many reservations.

Dr. Disrespect’s channel was demonetized by YouTube during this development, and he says he’d rather stay on YouTube than go anywhere else. There were theories that he might find a home at Kick or Rumble, places that attract… controversial streamers, but that doesn’t seem to have happened. He says he’ll apply for monetization again at the end of the month, but he can accept donations and… people donate.

That first return stream was viewed by 230,000 people right after it went live. About 30 minutes later, the number had dropped to 160,000 and is still dropping. That’s still a huge amount though. He has limited the chat to subscribers who have been logged in for 13 weeks, an incredibly long time and no doubt to curb those trying to bring up the allegations and his confession in the chat.

He actually briefly addressed the issue at hand, since his stream is called “The Truth” and he had previously deleted his lengthy confessions admitting that he was banned from Twitch for sending inappropriate Twitch Whisper messages to a minor.

His new “explanation” this time is that he had a Twitch partner manager with a “grudge” who cobbled together these Twitch messages and sent them with “out-of-context screenshots” to Trust and Safety at Twitch, Twitch’s legal department, and others within the company, which actually ultimately led to his suspension. He says Twitch Trust and Safety initially concluded that the messages were not sexting or that they violated federal child exploitation laws, and he says he did not exchange any explicit sexual messages or images with the minor, though Trust and Safety ultimately suspended him anyway.

He says the minor didn’t want to escalate the matter to Twitch. Law enforcement concluded “he did nothing wrong,” and he won the case with Twitch. He says it was “just banter,” after previously saying in the deleted message that there were conversations with the minor that “tend too far toward inappropriateness.” He claims Twitch didn’t pay attention to the age of consent at which the messages were received, if that gives you any idea of ​​the kind of technicality he’s getting into. He mocked people asking him to release the messages when they weren’t actually inappropriate, which he scoffed at, saying, “What are we in second grade?”

There were no excuses. He’s fully into his role as Doc. He started with a game of Wordle and is now trying to get into the Black Ops 6 beta as I write this.

These current viewership numbers are exaggerated, as many people no doubt just wanted to see what he would say and what that first stream would look like upon his return. But it’s clear he will have a loyal base of fans, which is obviously troubling as these aren’t just allegations. He has admitted to inappropriate contact with a minor, and this new explanation that “someone held a grudge and the age of consent where the messages were received is fine” doesn’t really change anything. But a majority of his fans are back to “firm handshakes” and showering “the Two-Time” with praise and admiration.

There’s nothing stopping Doc from streaming unless he gets banned from YouTube entirely, which could still happen. But monetization is another open question, as nothing has changed since he was demonetized. He may receive those donations, but sponsorship deals are undoubtedly all gone for the foreseeable future. He was also kicked out of his own game development company.

His entire stream currently consists of reading donations and submissive messages from his viewers. I do not recommend watching it.

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