Why Dr Disrespect Took a "Vacation"
From 2010 to 2020, former Twitch streamer Dr Disrespect built a massive following of enthusiastic fans with his thrilling gameplay in Call of Duty, Fortnite and other titles. Until recently, he ruled the internet and had a successful gaming career. In 2024, all that has come crashing down: a massive ongoing scandal including serious lawsuits, former Twitch employee leaks and new information revealing that Dr Disrespect engaged in explicit messaging with a minor has erupted. Here's a summary of all the Dr Disrespect information we currently have — let's explore what dark secrets the 2024 drama has exposed.
Who is Dr Disrespect?
Guy "Dr Disrespect" Beahm IV is an American gamer and live streamer who gained notoriety for his Halo and Call of Duty gameplay, plus his partnership with now-defunct YouTube gaming channel Machinima. After his time on YouTube, Dr Disrespect shifted his efforts to Twitch, where he maintained a channel for almost a decade. Dr Disrespect had millions of followers on Twitch before the platform terminated his account. He has 2.5 million followers on Twitter and 4.61 million followers on YouTube.
Dr. Disrespect, often referred to by fans as "Doc", is a persona Beahm adopted for his live-streaming audience. The character sports his iconic glasses, a fake mustache, a wig and a trademark bright-red color scheme. He commonly plays Call of Duty games and Fortnite. Dr Disrespect refers to his fanbase as the "Champions Club."
What major events have occurred in the Dr Disrespect scandal?
The Dr Disrespect timeline spans from the early days of 2010 to the present day in 2024. Major events include a temporary ban for violating Twitch's privacy standards, a mysterious permanent Twitch ban, a lawsuit, Twitch employee leaks and Dr Disrespect sending explicit messages to minors. Luckily, we've compiled a complete timeline with exact dates so you can fully understand all the Dr Disrespect drama.
Early Controversies
Dr Disrespect exploded onto the scene, rising to become one of the most popular streaming personalities despite (or in part because of) a series of scandals and temporary suspensions from Twitch.
- October-November 2015: Dr Disrespect begins streaming full-time on Twitch.tv.
- December 15, 2017: Dr Disrespect admits on a now-deleted stream that he cheated on his wife and takes time off to mend the relationship.
- June 11, 2019: Dr Disrespect attends and livestreams at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in California. He and his cameraman enter and film in a restroom at E3 multiple times. Twitch suspends Dr Disrespect's channel during his stream as this violates the Twitch privacy policy.
- June 25, 2019: Twitch unsuspends Dr Disrespect.
The Twitch Ban
While previous indescretions were well-known public record, Dr Disrespect's permanent ban on Twitch became one of the great mysteries of the streaming world. Fans and critics had speculated for years as to exacly what finally took down the Doc on Twitch.
- March 2020: Dr Disrespect enters a multi-year contract with Twitch as a content creator.
- Early June 2020: The #MeToo movement erupts in the gaming community as players share their experiences with harassment.
- June 21, 2020: Twitch releases an official Twitter statement saying they are "actively looking into the accounts concerning streamers affiliated with Twitch" and pledging to "make the streaming community safer for everyone."
— Twitch (@Twitch) June 22, 2020
- June 26, 2020: Dr Disrespect is banned from Twitch five days later. Discord also cancels a partnership with Dr Disrespect.
- June 27, 2020: Dr Disrespect claims in a Twitter post that "Twitch has not notified [him] on the specific reason behind their decision".
- August 21, 2021: Dr Disrespect says in a video that he knows the reason for the ban and announces he is "suing the [censored] out of [Twitch]."
- December 2021: Dr Disrespect co-founds Midnight Society, a game development studio.
- March 10, 2022: Dr Disrespect announces he has settled his lawsuit with Twitch with a statement. The statement indicates that "no party admits to any wrongdoing."
Moving on. pic.twitter.com/aA4KfHOSK2
— Dr Disrespect (@DrDisrespect) March 10, 2022
Why Doc Was Banned
After streaming and continuing to build his audience on YouTube, the other shoe finally dropped this summer when a former Twitch employee at last gave the world an answer to the big question.
- March 10, 2024: Dr Disrespect announces he will not return to Twitch.
- May 29, 2024: Dr Disrespect claims rival streaming site Kick offered him $10 million annually to stream. The deal does not progress and Kick representatives say they "need to ground things in reality." Speculation that he may move to Kick continues.
- June 21, 2024: Former Twitch employee Cody Conners tweets about Dr Disrespect, saying "he got banned because he got caught sexting a minor" and was "trying to meet up with her at TwitchCon." Chaos breaks loose.
He got banned because got caught sexting a minor in the then existing Twitch whispers product. He was trying to meet up with her at TwitchCon. The powers that be could read in plain text.
— Cody Conners (@evoli) June 22, 2024
Case closed, gang.
- June 21-25, 2024: The Verge and Bloomberg News corroborate Conners' claims with three former Twitch employees who claim the messages were indeed explicit.
- June 24, 2024: Midnight Society terminates their relationship with Dr Disrespect.
- June 25, 2024: Gaming gear company Turtle Beach ends its partnership with Dr Disrespect.
- June 25, 2024: Dr Disrespect posts a Twitter statement admitting to messaging a minor. In this post, he states: "were there Twitch whisper messages with an individual minor back in 2017? The answer is yes." He elaborates that he and the minor had "casual, mutual conversations that sometimes leaned too much in the direction of being inappropriate" and that "as an adult, a husband and a father" he "should never have entertained these conversations to begin with".
- June 25, 2024: One of Dr Disrespect's most frequent collaborators Timthetatman condemns his actions in a Twitter post.
- June 26, 2024: NBA 2k announces it will remove all Dr Disrespect-related content.
- June 27, 2024: A former Twitch employee alleges in an interview with The Rolling Stone that Dr Disrespect "was made aware by the individual that they were underage during the conversation, after which he indicated that this was no problem and carried on." The article also states YouTube was aware of these activities and Dr Disrespect's actions were why the platform decided not to offer him a contract. However, YouTube did not yet have enough evidence to demonetize him.
- June 27, 2024: YouTube demonetizes Dr Disrespect's account.
- June 27, 2024: YouTube suspends Dr Disrespect from their Partner program.
- June 27, 2024: A woman on Twitter alleges Dr Disrespect cheated on his wife with her in 2017 and provides explicit DMs as proof.
- June 27, 2024-current: Internet personalities including Kai Cenat, Valkyrae and Pokimane react to the situation. Kai Cenat unfollows Dr Disrespect. Valkyrae calls him "dr disgusting" on Twitter, while Pokimane says "yuck."
- July 2024: Shooter Rogue Company removes a custom Dr Disrespect map and skin from a prior collaboration.
- August 14, 2024: Dr Disrespect deletes the statement addressing his Twitch ban. Streamer Asmongold reacts to this.
The Comeback
- August 14, 2024: Dr Disrespect confirms he will return to streaming soon.
Stay tuned for updates and more information on the Dr Disrespect controversy as more revelations unfold.
GABBY DESENA