Dr. Disrespect Banned from Twitch (Again)

As you may have recalled, last week the games industry – and the nerd culture at large – had something of a “creepy man purge,” with dozens of women coming forward with stories of abuse from prominent and powerful men within the industry. This has, thankfully, resulted in decisive action against many of the men in question, including writer Chris Avellone, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s former Creative Director Ashraf Ismail, and a handful of Twitch streamers who have a history of sexual abuse.

But it was during this time that Twitch also banned a name we didn’t quite expect to come up, and one of the biggest Twitch stars in the world: Dr. Disrespect.

Now, if you know me, you know I am very much not a fan of Dr. Disrespect and his whole “thing,” and he’s certainly done more than his fair share of bannable offenses – specifically, actively spreading harmful COVID-19 conspiracy theories and streaming in a public bathroom at E3 last year – and gotten away scotfree.

So the man has always “deserved” a ban, at least from where I’m sitting, but seeing him get banned now when Twitch seems primarily interested in banning accused sexual predators… that’s eyebrow-raising timing.

For the record, Dr. Disrespect does have a history of getting into sexual misadventures. A few years back, he was caught, and he later admitted to cheating on his wife. However, to the best of our understanding, that was entirely “consensual” between himself and his lover, so while the act was a pretty scummy thing to do, it by no means an example of sexual assault.

What we do know for certain is that Twitch isn’t sharing why they’ve decided to ban Dr. Disrespect, either with the public or with the man himself, who has taken to Twitter to say even he doesn’t know what it’s about and to thank his fans for supporting him during “this difficult time.”

But all that said: there’s one person who suspects they know what’s going on. Rod Breslau, a respected esports journalist, has tweeted this:
 

look: for several hours now I have been told from credible sources the reason DrDisrespect has been banned. however due to the importance and sensitivity around the subject, I have refrained from going on it. I don't feel comfortable with it currently

It stands to reason that if Twitch were banning him for something that the public already knew about – say, the COVID-19 or bathroom thing – Rod Breslau would have just said as much if he did have credible sources on the inside. So we can assume that this ban is based on something that nobody except Twitch and Dr. Disrespect know about, at present.

It would be irresponsible and disrespectful to assume with such little evidence that the popular streamer might have been accused of sexual harassment behind closed doors, but, to be fair: “irresponsibility” and “disrespect” are his whole thing. So just for him, I, at least, will be making that assumption.

It is what he would have wanted.