Popular streamer Guy “Dr Disrespect” Beahm has returned to YouTube, two months after admitting he exchanged “messages with a single underage individual” that “tended too far toward inappropriateness.” He accused critics of a “planned and coordinated attack” and asked: “Did any of you consider that (they) may have been above the legal age of consent?”
Beahm admitted in June that his behavior was “too far in the direction of inappropriate” with minors after Cody Conners, Twitch’s former account director of strategic partnerships, claimed an unnamed individual was banned from the streaming platform “for being caught sexting with minors.” Those allegations were later linked directly to Beahm by The Verge when the publication spoke to two former Twitch employees.
In a lengthy response at the time, Beahm said: “I can now tell you my side of the story regarding the ban. Were there any Twitch Whisper messages involving a single minor in 2017? The answer is yes. Was there any genuine intent behind those messages? The answer is absolutely no.”
“These were casual, mutual conversations that sometimes veered too far toward inappropriateness,” Beahm continued, “but that’s all. Nothing illegal happened, no images were shared, no crimes were committed, I never even met the person. I went through a lengthy arbitration process regarding a civil dispute with Twitch and that case was resolved through a settlement. Let me be clear, there was no criminal case against me and no criminal charges were ever filed against me.”
Since that admission, Robert Bowling – who co-founded developer Midnight Society with Beahm – has distanced himself from the streamer, and many long-time partners have terminated their contracts. But now, after a period away from the spotlight, a visibly upset Beahm has returned in a combative YouTube stream, repeatedly accusing Conners and “so-called journalists” of a “planned and coordinated attack.” All of this, Breahm admits, comes ahead of an “opportunity” to reapply for a partnership with YouTube on September 25 and re-monetize his previously demonetized channel.
In a 20-minute tirade consisting of prepared statements and seemingly unplanned outbursts, Beahm called Connors a “fucking rat” and insisted that he was “not even involved in the Twitch investigation” that led to his suspension from the platform. Beahm also repeatedly denied allegations that a minor was involved in the incident that led to his suspension from Twitch, asking, “When you and all these so-called journalists, Cody, fired off your tweets, did any of you consider that the Twitch user may have been over the age of consent at the time the messages were sent?” This despite Beahm himself having previously admitted to sending “Twitch Whisper messages with a single minor in 2017.”
Beahm also stressed that he “never intended to meet the user involved in the allegations” and “never made plans to meet at TwitchCon.” Instead, he said, “I suspect you all somehow planned and coordinated this attack. These major publications, these journalists… are now acting like they’re just gossip outlets without any real journalism being done and no real research being done.”
Beahm further claimed that he was specifically targeted by a former Twitch partner manager, whose replacement he had demanded because he “did nothing for me… he was never on my channel, he didn’t follow me on Twitter, he didn’t even update us on Twitch Rivals tournaments.” Beahm continued, “Just a few months later, this former Twitch partner manager was directly involved in my ban. Coincidence? The Twitch user (involved in the case) tells (them) that they don’t want to report anything to Twitch, but this former Twitch partner manager encourages and even instructs the user to file a report directly with Twitch, even though the user had clearly told him that we never met in person anywhere and no photos were exchanged.” Beahm does not explain why the former partner manager even believed that potentially inappropriate behavior had occurred.
“I’ll say it again,” Beahm continued. “Neither I nor the Twitch user exchanged sexually explicit messages or images… I even intentionally used the word ‘inappropriate,’ and look how it’s been defined by everyone, including these defamatory articles. I’m sorry, but mutual banter with inappropriate jokes taken out of context should never have resulted in me being banned from Twitch.”
Beahm then provided a detailed explanation of how the report was – wrongly, he claims – first forwarded to Twitch’s law enforcement team and then to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. “As far as I know,” he added, “they did not forward Twitch’s report to law enforcement. Mind you, the same people who made that decision (at Twitch) admitted internally that the messages did not constitute sexting… that the messages did not warrant child sexual abuse charges… Twitch makes this decision to terminate my contract and ban me while admitting that they never researched the age of consent in the jurisdiction where the user’s messages were sent and received.”
“I don’t claim to be perfect,” Beahm added toward the end of his statement, “but I also didn’t do all the crap they say I did. But that doesn’t make a story, does it? They wanted media attention, the media wants controversy, and by blowing it all up with big, inaccurate headlines like ‘sexting’ and ‘sexually explicit,’ you all got what you wanted at (me) expense. The reality is that they wanted to get rid of the Doc, plain and simple… It’s so obvious that certain Twitch executives and employees had personal biases against the Doc and used all of this as an opportunity to terminate my contract.”
“I am not denying the Whispers exchange,” Beahm concluded. “I am not denying this to all of you out there. It looks bad. I have no way of knowing if the Twitch user thought our Whispers exchange was inappropriate. If so, I apologize. All I know is that I never did what Twitch, Cody Conners, or the public are claiming.”
