Dr Disrespect says he’s suing Twitch

Guy “Dr Disrespect” Beahm said Tuesday that he will sue Twitch after the Amazon-owned streaming platform banned him last year. Dot Esports reported Monday that the streamer discussed the ban during a YouTube stream that day, where he revealed that he now does know the reason why he was banned, and that because of it, his team is “suing the fuck out of them.”

“I’ve known for months now, the reason why,” Beahm said during the stream. “And I’ll just say this right now, champs. There’s a reason why we’re suing the fuck out of them. I don’t know how else to put it.”

Beahm received his second — and permanent — ban in June 2020, despite having a exclusive streaming arrangement with Twitch. (Beahm’s first ban occurred in June 2019 after he streamed live inside a bathroom at E3.) For months following the permanent ban, Beahm said he didn’t know why he was banned, and Twitch remained quiet, too. However, the streamer didn’t reveal the reason during Monday’s stream. Polygon reached out to Beahm for more information and has not heard back. Twitch declined to comment.

Beahm returned to streaming on YouTube with his Dr Disrespect character in August 2020. During that stream, he said his team had “no idea” why he was banned from Twitch. “As far as I’m concerned, we didn’t do anything to warrant a ban, let alone how they went about banning us,” he said. “No communication before, no reaching out, nothing.”

During Monday’s stream, Beahm claimed he makes, on YouTube, “a quarter” of what he was making by streaming on Twitch. He said the ban also impacted his “networking” opportunities, too — through “blacklisting and shadowbanning.”

Twitch said in August that it will improve its ban notifications sent to suspended streamers, by offering the date of a violation and the name of the content.