Celebrity streamer and Midnight Society co-founder Guy Beahm or “Dr Disrespect” has finally responded in full to allegations that he was banned from Twitch for sending sext messages to a minor. In a much-edited statement on Xitter yesterday, Beahm confessed that, yes, he messaged an “individual minor” via the Twitch Whispers services in 2017, characterising the messages as “casual, mutual conversations that sometimes leaned too much in the direction of being inappropriate, but nothing more”.
As we wrote in yesterday’s report, Twitch cancelled a multiple-year exclusivity contract with Beahm, then one of the platform’s biggest stars, in 2020. At the time, Twitch would only say that Beahm had acted “in violation of our Community Guidelines”. Beahm sued Twitch over the ban in 2021, but the suit was eventually settled with neither party admitting wrongdoing.
Last week, however, former Twitch strategic partnerships account director Cody Conners accused Beahm of “sexting a minor in the then existing Twitch Whispers product” adding that Beahm “was trying to meet up with her at TwitchCon”, the company’s semi-annual gaming convention. The Verge’s Ash Parrish subsequently obtained comment from two unnamed former Twitch employees who corroborated Conners’s account.
Beahm pushed back, rejecting the claim that he had been grooming a minor while saying that the terms of his settlement with Twitch forbade him from going into detail. “I didn’t do anything wrong, all this has been probed and settled, nothing illegal, no wrongdoing was found, and I was paid,” he wrote on Xitter.
Beahm’s colleagues at The Midnight Society weren’t convinced by his defence, announcing on Monday 24th June that they would ties with Beahm “in order to maintain our principles and standards as a studio and individuals” following an internal inquiry.
Which brings us to last night, when Beahm finally addressed the allegations directly in a lengthy Xitter statement. “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,” Beahm writes in the post. “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,” it continues. “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.”
The last line would be more convincing if the post hadn’t been repeatedly edited since publication to first remove, then restore the word “minor”, as you can see by clicking the “last edited” text at the bottom. In general, the post strikes me as a very rambling, loud but elusive way of saying “yes, I did the thing they’re accused me of”.
Elsewhere in the post, Beahm apologises to The Midnight Society, presenting his departure from the studio as a “collective decision”, rather than one imposed on him. He also describes “remarks and labels being thrown around” that he is a “predator or pedophile” as “exaggerations”, commenting “that’s a different level of disgust that I fucking hate even hearing about”. Finally, he insists that he’s not going to let being caught sending a minor dodgy messages interfere with his career.
“If you’re uncomfortable with this entire statement and think I’m a piece of shit, that’s fine,” the post concludes. “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.”
Ah yes, the infamous “they”, that cabal of nay-sayers hell-bent on bringing down a good man for the merest offence of maybe just possibly being a little bit of a creep. Going by the comments on the X-post, I’m not sure Beahm’s fans are clamouring for his return from holiday.