If there is one big story in the streaming world at the moment, it’s what happened to Dr DisRespect? Guy ‘Dr DisRespect’ Beahm has been one of Twitch’s biggest personalities and best known streamers for his outrageous persona, and previous controversy surrounding taking a livestream into a public bathroom.
Suddenly though, on June 29, Dr DisRepect was banned from Twitch, and no one knows why. According to the games and esports journalist Rod ‘Slasher’ Breslau, however, we know that despite rumours, the Doc’s ban doesn’t stem from him signing with another streaming platform. Some speculated that the streamer may have landed a gig streaming on YouTube or Facebook Gaming, but no – this is allegedly not the case.
Talking to Hasan ‘Hasanabi’ Piker on Twitch, Slasher says, “[The ban is] outside of a business realm. Aside from what I have heard personally, I have also investigated all the other potential things here. And going to another platform, of course, is the number one mystery thing spoken about and I have heard nothing, in terms of actually speaking to other platforms and doing investigating in this realm, that indicates anything of that nature.
“And I said to you, on the night of the ban, that it was handled outside of Trust and Safety. Trust and Safety are normally the ones who handle the bans and it was handled outside of that which implies a law enforcement, and/or security type of related issue.”
Slasher’s Twitter has been one of the biggest sources of information when it comes to this ban, and although it appears he knows more on the situation, he believes that he’d be risking a defamation case if he decided to share it. The journalist is currently looking for a publication that is prepared to take that risk on if he publishes his report on their site. “I do need a publication to back me, but this requires indemnity that I want and that has been rather difficult to acquire.”
Since writing on Twitter about Dr DisRespect’s ban, Twitch has apparently been looking for those who leaked the information to Slasher. Giving out any more information on the ban may also reveal to Twitch who this is, something Slasher obviously wants to avoid. “That is going to put some people – I wouldn’t say they’re in danger, but they could be compromised if I put out some information that could be brought back to certain people. Like I can say from what I heard, Twitch has been doing a massive internal investigation since everything happened, the day that I reported that Dr DisRepect was permanently banned.”
Slasher has previously talked to Hasanabi on Twitch about the ban, originally confirming that it is a permanent ban, and it is not related to DMCA reasons or the ongoing investigation into industry-wide sexual misconduct.
Although audiences expect the ban to be about something serious, Slasher confirms that the Doc hasn’t been detained by the LAPD – “I have found nothing that would say he has been arrested – I wouldn’t say that.”
Right now we’re all still in a state of limbo wondering what has happened to the Two-Time, and how serious the situation really is. Slowly we are getting more information on what the ban may or may not have been caused by, but it’s especially concerning that it wasn’t the Doc moving platforms to stream elsewhere.