Two weeks after being banned from Twitch for filming inside an in-use public restroom during E3, streamer Dr. Disrespect’s channel is live again as of June 25. While Dr. Disrespect (whose real name is Guy Beahm) has yet to stream again, his Twitch channel can be viewed on the site, which isn’t possible during an active ban.
Beahm was banned from the popular streaming platform on June 11. While streaming from the E3 convention floor, he entered a public restroom, followed by his camera operator. The restroom was being used by a number of people who could be seen clearly on the video, and who were neither warned that filming would take place or asked for their consent to appear on the stream. Twitch responded by banning Beahm’s channel, though it didn’t say how long the ban would last.
Beahm hasn’t said when he’ll start streaming again, but when he does return, it’s expected to be a major event for Twitch. After taking a self-imposed break from at the beginning of this year when he was caught cheating on his wife, Beahm’s return to Twitch broke the platform’s audience records, getting 388,000 viewers. When his channel came back online this week following his latest ban, it immediately lit up with activity, despite the streamer himself not making any announcement that it was live again, according to Dexerto. Commenters celebrated the channel’s return in chat and new subscriptions poured in. So many messages were being sent that the chat had to be put into subscriber-only mode.
Outside of his Twitch channel, reactions were more mixed, as some Twitter users expressed frustration at Beahm’s seeming ability to flout both Twitch’s own rules and the law with few consequences. Filming in a public restroom is in violation of Twitch’s community guidelines, not to mention a likely violation of California’s privacy laws. Even while his ban was still in effect, Beahm didn’t appear to be taking the matter seriously. Rather than offering any explanation or apology for his invasion of privacy, he instead joked about it, calling the incident a “mishap” in a Tweet, and saying that he had fired “Alex,” a fictional character who he refers to as his director during streams.
Beahm’s return to streaming will likely be as controversial as it is popular. Reinstating his channel after he demonstrated that he’s willing to unapologetically break Twitch’s terms of service (and maybe even the law) seems to send the message that streamers who bring enough traffic to the site aren’t bound by the same rules as everyone else.
Source: Dexerto