Last night, Twitch reinstated Guy “Dr. Disrespect” Beahm’s gargantuan Twitch channel. This follows its removal after an incident at E3 involving a camera, a public bathroom and a 14-day channel suspension.
Dr. Disrespect, whose whole schtick is bald-faced irreverence, was attending California’s E3 convention when, on the show’s first day, he and his cameraperson live-streamed Dr. Disrespect entering a bathroom.
Tens of thousands of viewers watched him walk past bathroom-using attendees and go into a stall—all of which was apparently a violation of Twitch community guidelines. Twitch suspended him as a result and, on top of that, E3 revoked his badge.
Dr. Disrespect didn’t seem to be taking his ban very seriously, as evidenced by his posting an E3 recap video described as, “Mishaps lead to Recaps,” poking fun at Tyler “Ninja” Blevins’ new figurines (“Where do I find these? Next to My Little Pony or Barbie?”), and posting emotes of himself in a bathroom stall.
Yesterday, Twitch reinstated his channel and, predictably, his fans are pumped. Dr. Disrespect has remained offline, but his chat is full of excited viewers anticipating his next stream.
Twitch declined to comment and Dr. Disrespect did not immediately respond to Kotaku’s request for comment.
Said one fan this morning in the Twitch chat, “All these others channels shaking in their boots over Doc’s return. The face of Twitch is back… Twitch is lucky.”
Comments
18 responses to “Two Weeks After Suspending Dr. Disrespect For Livestreaming In Bathroom, Twitch Restores His Channel”
So really he got two weeks off work and a bucket load of free promo through controversy news stories. Cool, that’ll be effective.
Just as everyone knew they would, because walking into a public toilet and filming random people peeing is okay, and even commendable, if you have any amount of celebrity to your name.
Yeah well next time I hope Dr Disrespect doesn’t livestream himself in the bathroom again just like what happened at this year’s E3 I hope he doesn’t film himself in the bathroom at next year’s E3.
You said it, robot friend.
If he’s “the face of Twitch”, might I suggest that a rebranding is in order?
Twitch desperately needs to grow some balls. By pandering to every big name in fear of losing their audience, they’re just pushing the sane audience away instead.
Would you agree that if any big name streamer were to be banned for life wouldn’t their followers just find someone else to watch on the platform?
That’s what I think. If they ditched him a few would follow but most would just move onto anothe twitch streamer to watch.
Exactly. Had twitch perma banned him. His followers would simply follow him to the new platform.
This audience saber is talking about more than likely would not watch him in the first place. Nor would they leave the platform entirely.
Yeah I was more so talking about watchers staying on the platform but watching someone different. But yeah I feel like publicity whether negative or good is boosting his viewers in some way.
I’d say in general (depends on the streamer, audience, platform, etc) about half would, the other half would probably follow the streamer to another platform. Of course if the streamer is enough of an idiot to get dumped from Twitch, places like Mixer probably wouldn’t want them around long either, leading to what you said in the end.
Basically I think if these platforms did actually ban big names, it might hurt a bit in the short-term but realistically it won’t make a difference in terms of audience, it will give them a better image though.
*rubs thumb and forefinger together*
Is anyone surprised? Like… at all? Twitch has always been about dat green.
im only surprised if anyone happened to be surprised by this news
Now I can continue not watching his unfunny gimmick shit.
Break the law… It’s free publicity! – Twitch, 2019
So was he ever criminally charged? I mean it’s literally an illegal activity and it’s been recorded and broadcast. Why hasn’t there been at least one complaint and a formal charge?
As for removing the suspension I’d love to see what their rules actually state. Because this is the precedent every other “banee” needs to refer to in future.
A lot of people have actually misread the law or not actually read what it entails.
The one they bring up refers to recording in a bathroom in secret. AKA a hidden cam.
This is taken directly from California’s Penal code 647(j) which a lot of the articles referred to. The penal code states the following:
1. Using a device such as a telescope or binoculars to invade a person’s privacy;
2. Secretly photographing or recording a person’s body under or through his or her clothing for the purpose of sexual arousal or gratification; or
3. Secretly recording or photographing another person in a private room in order to view that person’s body or undergarments
The law is specifically related to secretly recording.
I’m not defending what he did, I might be a casual fan but it was still idiotic what he did. But it seems a lot of the journos referenced a law without actually looking at the law in depth.
I had a look at that law, and while it references secretly filming it doesn’t seem to apply to that exclusively. Started here and worked through.
https://www.shouselaw.com/are-cameras-in-bathrooms-illegal-in-california