Herschel “Guy” Beahm IV, popularly known by his online alias Dr DisRespect, has been banned from Twitch following a livestream which he conducted inside a public bathroom at the Los Angeles Convention Center during E3 2019.
Dr DisRespect is an American Twitch streamer and a popular internet personality who has over 3.45 million followers in Twitch TV and 1.03 million subscribers in YouTube. He has been into content creation for almost nine years now and has worked at Sledgehammer Games as Community Manager and later Level Designer. He has also made sponsorship deals with Gillette, ASUS, Razer and G Fuel.
But apparently being popular and affiliated with multiple brands does not make one immune to prosecution, as is evident from the very recent Twitch ban. As mentioned above, the ban comes following a livestream which he conducted inside a public bathroom at the E3 venue. Based on Kotaku’s report, on Tuesday afternoon local time, Dr DisRespect allegedly walked into a public bathroom at the Los Angeles Convention Centre along with his camera person with the camera rolling. Now that wouldn’t generally be a problem but what followed immediately afterwards is a clear breach of privacy policy of both Twitch as well as California State Law.
The livestream showed E3 attendees urinating in the background and as per Kotaku’s report, one of them seemed like a child.
“Dr DisRespect proceeded to stroll into the men’s room with tens of thousands of people watching his stream, then shouted the word ‘Bodyguard!’ while E3 attendees—including one that looked to be a child—used urinals in the background. He then went into a stall. Other clips taken later depict him re-entering the bathroom two more times and using a urinal.” – Kotaku.
In the video where Dr DisRespect was urinating at a urinal, other people were clearly visible as they were standing next to him using the urinals.
According to California Penal Code Section 647(j)(3) PC, the use of “a concealed camcorder, motion picture camera, or photographic camera of any type, to secretly videotape, film, photograph, or record by electronic means, another identifiable person who may be in a state of full or partial undress, for the purpose of viewing the body of, or the undergarments worn by, that other person, without the consent or knowledge of that other person, in the interior of a bedroom, bathroom, changing room, fitting room, dressing room, or tanning booth, or the interior of any other area in which that other person has a reasonable expectation of privacy” is strictly prohibited.
As far as Twitch is concerned, their Terms of Service reads, “Any use of the Twitch Services in violation of the foregoing violates these Terms of Service and may result in, among other things, termination or suspension of your rights to use the Twitch Services.”
Dr DisRespect’s livestream and videos clearly violated the “invasion of privacy” rule of both California state and Twitch TV, which is why his Twitch account has been inaccessible since after sometime following his stream. Visiting his Twitch account will direct you to a blank page with the message “Sorry. Unless you’ve got a time machine, that content is unavailable.”
An E3 representative later told Kotaku in an email that they have revoked Dr DisRespect’s E3 badge.
It is currently unknown as to whether the nature of the ban is permanent or just a temporary suspension. Either way, the fact that Dr DisRespect has been banned from Twitch due to violation of “invasion of privacy” law will surely send a lesson to every famous internet personality out there that no one is above the law and that justice is always swift.
