Last Friday, a former Twitch employee sent the gaming and streaming world into a frenzy by apparently revealing the reason popular streamer Guy Beahm, known by most as Dr Disrespect, was mysteriously banned from the platform in 2020. Now, the game studio Beahm co-founded, Midnight Society, says it has terminated its relationship with him, effective immediately, in the wake of the allegation that Beahm was banned from Twitch for his messages to a minor.
Midnight Society announced the news with a post on X/Twitter on Monday, saying they "assumed" Beahm's 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."
"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," the statement, which you can read in full below, continues.
— Midnight Society (@12am) June 24, 2024On 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.…
Robert Bowling, who co-founded Midnight Society with Beahm, previously commented briefly on the situation late on Friday, writing on X/Twitter, “I’m now aware and I’m dealing with it.”
Beahm was live-streaming Elden Ring around the time when the statement dropped. After going largely silent for a few minutes, Beahm ended the stream by saying he would be possibly taking a break after a "planned vacation," adding that he's feeling "fatigued" and "burnt out." He also mentioned Midnight Society specifically, saying, "maybe I step away from there too. Just completely remove myself from the scene. That's what I need to do."
The story first erupted late on Friday, June 21, with a social media post on X/Twitter by former Twitch employee Cody Conners, who was Account Director of Strategic Partnerships before he left the company in 2023 (Disclosure: Conners briefly worked at IGN in 2011). While Conners didn’t mention him by name, it was widely assumed that he was referring to Beahm, who was suddenly banned from the platform almost exactly four years ago with no reason given publicly.
The ban, Conners claimed, came after Beahm allegedly used the now-defunct Twitch Whispers chat function to “meet up” with a minor at TwitchCon.
“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,” Conners wrote. “Case closed, gang.”
— Cody Conners (@evoli) June 22, 2024He 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.
Case closed, gang.
“No one made the wrong decision, f*ck him and his boys,” Conners added.
Beahm sued Twitch over the ban in 2021, and the legal dispute was “resolved” in 2022, with Beahm saying in a statement that “no party admits to any wrongdoing.” He now primarily streams on YouTube.
The claims made in Conners’ post were corroborated by a subsequent report in The Verge on Sunday, June 23, which cites two former Twitch employees who shared their accounts with the publication. One of the former employees worked on Twitch’s trust and safety team at the time of the ban, and said Beahm used Whispers to “to exchange messages with a minor and initiate a conversation about meeting up at TwitchCon,” per the report. The report adds that a “significant amount of time” passed between when the alleged messages were sent and when they were reported to Twitch’s moderation team.
For his part, Beahm has staunchly maintained on social media that "no wrongdoing was found." He’s made a number of comments since Conners’ post on Friday, his first one in response to esports commentator Jake Lucky after he shared the story to his followers.
Jake seriously... I get it, its a hot topic but this has been settled, no wrongdoing was acknowledged and they paid out the whole contract.
— Dr Disrespect (@DrDisrespect) June 22, 2024
Beahm issued a more formal response on Sunday, writing on X/Twitter: “Listen, I’m obviously tied to legal obligations from the settlement with Twitch but I just need to say what I can say since this is the f*cking internet. I didn’t do anything wrong, all this has been probed and settled, nothing illegal, no wrongdoing was found, and I was paid.”
— Dr Disrespect (@DrDisrespect) June 22, 2024Listen, I’m obviously tied to legal obligations from the settlement with Twitch but I just need to say what I can say since this is the f*cking internet.
I didn’t do anything wrong, all this has been probed and settled, nothing illegal, no wrongdoing was found, and I was paid.…
He’s also continued to stream on YouTube in the meantime, beginning his Elden Ring stream on Monday by briefly addressing the situation.
“For those that are looking for me to expand on this weekend, not gonna. Already said what I needed to say. I don’t give a f*ck about this guy,” he said, likely referring to Conners. “That’s it.”
Conners has offered his own response to the situation as well, particularly in regards to questions about why it took so long for the information to come out.
“The subtext of the bit, again shame worthy, is that you’re the last person to not know,” Conners wrote, in part. “The information had been so normalized, declawed in the circles that I ran in that could be reduced to allusion and entendre. For everyone who has since said ‘that’s f*cked’ — I agreed with you on Friday night before you wrote it. I should have agreed with you sooner.”
— Cody Conners (@evoli) June 24, 2024Those three tweets warrant admonishment. Maybe more than three—the stans trying to dig stuff up have been so underwhelming that I presume they missed something. I apologize for it all because it's worth apologize for.
The subtext of the bit, again shame worthy, is that you’re…
Despite the various developments over the weekend, Twitch has not officially responded to the situation. YouTube has also not commented.
IGN has reached out to Twitch and YouTube for comment, as well as Beahm, Conners, and Bowling for additional comment.
Thumbnail credit: David Becker/Getty Images
Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she's not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.
