One of Twitch’s top former streamers has admitted to sending “inappropriate” messages to a minor, but says he’s “not a fucking predator or a pedophile.”
Dr DisRespect, whose real name is Herschel “Guy” Beahm, had more than four million followers on Twitch before his channel was abruptly deleted in 2020.
He was only halfway through a two-year exclusivity deal with the platform.
Now, Beahm, 42, has addressed his X followers about the ban, saying: “Were there any Twitch Whisper messages with a minor single in 2017? The answer is yes.”
Twitch Whisper was a messaging feature on the site.
“If there were real intentions behind these messages, the answer is absolutely not,” Beahm’s statement added.
The explanation comes after a former Twitch employee shared an explosive post on X on Friday that appeared to refer to Beahm, although it did not name him.
Cody Conners, who worked on Twitch’s strategic partnerships team until last year, wrote: “He got banned because he was caught texting a minor on the then-existing Twitch Whispers product. He was trying to meet her at TwitchCon “.
Shortly after Conners’ post went viral, Beahm appeared to deny the allegations, posting on “.
In a previous post, he said that Twitch had paid his entire contract despite the ban.
After the ban he moved to Youtubewhere he has over 4.7 million followers and still streams regularly.
Game studio launches Beahm
Midnight Society, a game studio that was working with Beahm on a new game, dropped him.
Robert Bowling, co-founder of the study, posted Tuesday: “If you send an inappropriate message to a minor, I can’t work with you. Period. I promised to act only on the facts, and I did.”
On Tuesday, about an hour before Beahm released his statement, Bloomberg cited three anonymous sources who it said confirmed Conners’ claims.
Tech news site The Verge also spoke to an anonymous Twitch employee who backed up the allegations.
In his lengthy X statement, Beahm said the decision to leave the Midnight Society studio was “painful” and “collective.”
“Our team is full of incredibly talented and good people who have great career ambitions and families,” he said, “and I would never want to jeopardize the culture we have carefully created.”
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“These were casual, mutual conversations that sometimes leaned too far toward inappropriateness, but nothing more,” Beahm added in X about conversations with a minor.
“Nothing illegal happened, no photos were shared, no crimes were committed, I didn’t even meet the individual.
“I should never have had these conversations to begin with. That’s on me. That’s on me as an adult, a husband and a father.”
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However, he lashed out at people who accused him of being a predator.
“I’m not a fucking predator or a pedophile. Are you kidding me? Anyone who really knows me knows where I stand on that stuff with those types of people.”
Despite being fired by the studio, Beahm said he’s not going anywhere and plans to continue streaming.
“I’m taking an extended vacation with my family.” […] and I return with a great weight off my shoulders.
“They want it to go away…yeah, fucking true.”
This story originally appeared on News.sky.com read the full story
