On Friday evening we became aware of an allegation against one of our co-founder’s Guy Beahm aka Dr Disrespect.
— Midnight Society (@12am) June 24, 2024
We assumed his innocence and began speaking with parties involved. And in order to maintain our principles and standards as a studio and individuals, we needed to act.…
Studio co-founded by Dr Disrespect cuts ties, following Twitch ban accusations
“In order to maintain our principles and standards as a studio and individuals, we needed to act”
Midnight Society, the studio co-founded by Guy ‘Dr Disrespect’ Beahm, has announced it’s cut ties with the streamer, following allegations he was banned from Twitch for messages sent to a minor.
Beahm has denied the accusations and, following the completion of his latest live stream on Monday, suggested that he could take a break from streaming.
Midnight Society announced the news of its split on X on Friday, stating that it had “assumed [Dr Disrespect‘s] innocence and began speaking with parties involved,” and “in order to maintain our principles and standards as a studio and individuals, we needed to act.”
For this reason, the Deadrop developer is terminating its relationship with Beahm immediately, it said.
“While these facts are difficult to hear and even more difficult to accept, it is our duty to act with dignity on behalf of all individuals involved, especially the fifty-five developers and families we have employed along with our community of players.”
Beahm was one of Twitch’s most popular streaming personalities prior to his unexpected ban and the termination of an exclusive deal with the platform, which was said to have been worth as much as $10 million a year, in June 2020.
Twitch has never publicly confirmed the reason for Beahm’s ban and, following the streamer’s threat to sue in 2021, the pair released statements that the matter had been resolved and that “no party admits to any wrongdoing.”
However, the situation took a turn on Friday when a former Twitch employee posted an accusation to X, which while not mentioning Beahm by name, was widely assumed to be targeted at the streamer.
“He got banned because [he] got caught sexting a minor in the then existing Twitch whispers product,” they wrote. “He was trying to meet up with her at TwitchCon. The powers that be could read in plain text. Case closed, gang.”
The Verge later corroborated the claims and named Beahm directly.
“One former Twitch employee, who asked to remain anonymous citing the potential risk to their career, told The Verge that Beahm had used Whispers, Twitch’s now-defunct messaging system, to exchange messages with a minor and initiate a conversation about meeting up at TwitchCon,” it wrote. “The employee worked on Twitch’s trust and safety team at the time of the ban in 2020.”
The publication goes on to claim that Beahm’s ban happened shortly after Twitch updated its sexual harassment policy to punish offenders with permanent suspensions.
In his own social media post, Beahm denied the allegations. “This has been settled, no wrongdoing was acknowledged, and they paid out the whole contract,” he posted on X.
He later published another post reiterating that no wrongdoing was found, and a third responding more formally to the accusations.
“Listen, I’m obviously tied to legal obligations from the settlement with Twitch but I just need to say what I can say since this is the fucking internet,” he wrote. “I didn’t do anything wrong, all this has been probed and settled, nothing illegal, no wrongdoing was found, and I was paid.”
Twitch has not officially responded to the claims.
Beahm continued to stream on Monday, but at the conclusion of his three-hour Elden Ring session (embedded above), the streamer hinted that he could soon take a break.
“I think… we need to step away,” he said. “And when I say step away, I think I’m going to have to relay this to Midnight Society, but maybe I step away from there too [and] just completely remove myself from the scene. It’s what I need to do.”
He later added: “It may be time to drive into the sunset”.