The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly less well known is never publish a statement that a lawyer hasn’t gone over!
Well, it’s been a good 4 years, but now we finally know why Twitch banned Dr Disrespect.
Guy Beahm, a.k.a. Dr Disrespect, was banned from Twitch 4 years ago. At the time, no one knew why; well, aside from Twitch staff, with a former member dangling the knowledge he had of the incident (under NDA, mind you) to promote his band. But now, we don’t need Cody, ironically thanks to Cody (and the NDA apparently expiring).
Why, you ask? Because, Doc went and attempted to address the issue himself!
In an ill-advised move, Beahm put out a statement in an attempt to get ahead of things. And it went off like the dumpster fire you’d expect.
THE TWITCH BAN
Guy Beahm, Dr Disrespect
Hello, I’d like to make a quick statement..
Lets cut the fucking bullshit, as you know there’s no filter with me. I’ve always been up front and real with you guys on anything that I can be up front about, and I’m always willing to accept responsibility… which is why I’m here now.
First and foremost I do want to apologize to everyone in my community as well as those close to me, my team, and everyone at Midnight Society Game Studio.
A lot of people have been left in the dark about what happened yesterday with midnight society and I, and we made the painful decision collectively, to have me step down. Our team is full of incredibly talented and good people that have high career ambitions and families and i’d never want jeopardize the culture we have carefully crafted.
Everyone has been wanting to know why I was banned from twitch, but for reasons outside of my control, I was not allowed to say anything for the last several years. Now that two former twitch employees have publicly disclosed the accusations, I can now tell you my side of the story regarding the ban.
Were there twitch whisper messages with an individual minor back in 2017? The answer is yes. Were there real intentions behind these messages, the answer is absolutely not. These were casual, mutual conversations that sometimes leaned too much in the direction of being inappropriate, but nothing more. Nothing illegal happened, no pictures were shared, no crimes were committed, I never even met the individual. I went through a lengthy arbitration regarding a civil dispute with twitch and that case was resolved by a settlement. Let me be clear, it was not a criminal case against me and no criminal charges have ever been brought against me.
Now, from a moral standpoint I’ll absolutely take responsibility. I should have never entertained these conversations to begin with. That’s on me. That’s on me as an adult, a husband and a father. It should have never happened. I get it. I’m not perfect and I’ll fucking own my shit. This was stupid.
Now, with all this said, don’t get it fucking mistaken, I’ve seen all the remarks and labels being throw around so loosely. Social media is a destruction zone. I’m no fucking predator or pedophile. Are you kidding me? Anyone that truely knows me fucking knows where I stand on those things with those types of people. Fuck that. That’s a different level of disgust that I fucking hate even hearing about. Don’t be labeling me as the worst of the worst with your exaggerations. Get the fuck outta here with that shit.
But I think I’ve said what I needed to say regarding the ban itself. That’s it. That’s why twitch made the decision in 2020.
To my team, community, industry friends that have supported me, I apologize, I wish I could’ve said all this sooner. You guys have always showed me and my family love and support throughout all these years we love you guys like you can’t imagine. I have the fucking best community and circle. If any of this has made you uncomfortable, I get it. You don’t have to support me anymore but just know you have always been greatly appreciated.
But trust me when I say this…to all my haters that live and breath social media with zero real life experience, I don’t give a fuck about you.
Finally, if you’re uncomfortable with this entire statement and think I’m a piece of shit, that’s fine. But I’m not fucking going anywhere. I’m not the same guy that made this mistake all those years ago. I’m taking an extended vacation with my family as mentioned on stream and I’m coming back with a heavy weight off my shoulders.
They want me to disappear… yeah fucking right.
So, what’s the issue with it? Well, aside from the fact that this is almost always a bad idea when done without a lawyer present, Xitter also shows history for posts that were made and then edited.
The oldest of which used the term “individual minor”, which for some reason he eventually went back to using (in the most recent version, which I used here).
Now, it is still worth pointing out that we don’t have the logs of these Twitch Whisper messages. On the other hand, publicly admitting to making inappropriate texts to someone that was at the time legally considered a minor is probably not a brilliant strategy. It’s also worth pointing out that if the law was broken, the whole thing wouldn’t have been solved with a ban and an NDA. It really is rather shocking that this is the only person exercising legal opsec:
That’s not the end of it, though. The game studio Midnight Society chose to publicly sever ties with the Doc over the controversy.
On Friday evening we became aware of an allegation against one of our co-founder’s Guy Beahm aka Dr Disrespect.
We assumed his innocence and began speaking with parties involved. And in order to maintain our principles and standards as a studio and individuals, we needed to act.
For this reason, we are terminating our relationship with Guy Beahm immediately.
While these facts are difficult to hear and even more difficult to accept, it is our duty to act with dignity on behalf of all individuals involved, especially the fifty-five developers and families we have employed along with our community of players.
Also the following from the studio head:
And now, you have people, like Tfue, calling for these Twitch Whisper records to be released.
With Twitch basically on fire due to… well, everything (blatant almost-porn streams, scummy staff, etc.), one wonders exactly how far things have gone, and not just with Dr Disrespect.
Oh, and, because you were probably expecting it (I couldn’t find a place I was happy putting it above):
Source: The Verge
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