Herschel “Guy” Beahm IV, more commonly referred to as Dr Disrespect, saw his Twitch ban lifted on June 25.
Dr Disrespect is a massive content creator in the world of live streaming, and his fans have already celebrated the star’s return with subscriptions and supportive messages in Twitch chat—despite the fact that Beahm wasn’t even broadcasting at the time. It’s clear Beahm is set to make a comeback, but will this news have a bigger effect on the gaming community?
The story behind the ban
The decision to ban Dr Disrespect didn’t come lightly. Beahm is a massive streamer with an average viewership of 16,802 and a peak viewership of 65,374 over the last three months.
On June 11, he made a critical mistake by walking into a public bathroom at the 2019 E3 event with a camera following right behind him, which was in direct violation of California’s privacy laws and Twitch’s terms of service. Since the entire incident was live-streamed directly to Dr Disrespect’s Twitch stream, it wasn’t exactly surprising the platform decided to suspend him.
Mixed reactions followed the ban. Another popular streamer, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, agreed that Twitch made the right call by banning Beahm for breaking terms of services. Predictably, Dr Disrespect’s fans were much less welcoming of this decision. Beahm provided a unique product by combining witty humor, high-level gameplay, and ridiculous production value—and that’s a void few streamers could fill. The demand for his content was so high that many fans flocked to an imitator channel in the interim.
With that in mind, it was almost inevitable that Twitch would unban one of their main content creators. Still, did they make this call way too soon?
The industry implications
Dr Disrespect’s ban wasn’t just a gaming issue. The public bathroom incident made headlines in mainstream media. Sites like CNN and Yahoo ran stories.
Ever since Tyler “Ninja” Blevins brought attention to live streaming with his Fortnite broadcasts, Twitch went from an obscure gamer resource to a widely recognized platform. However, the site is still in the early stages of its development. Streaming is growing and making strong impressions with every passing week. Some may argue Twitch should take an even harsher stance on the Dr Disrespect issue in order to direct this growth into a more positive venue.
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