“Sorry. Unless you have a time machine, this content is not available. “ Since Friday June 26, la page Twitch de Dr DisRespect is no longer active. The American streamer (online and live videographer) which had more than 4 million subscribers has been permanently banned from the platform owned by Amazon, say several sources to different American media and journalists.
38-year-old American recognizable by his mule, sunglasses and mustache
Dr DisRespect is one of the biggest stars of Twitch, since his debut on the platform in May 2015. This character portrayed by Herschel Beahm, a 38-year-old American, is recognizable among all thanks to his mule, his sunglasses and his stocked mustache. More than 28,000 people on average were present during the six to seven hours of his last four lives where he plays different games (including Call of Duty : Modern Warfare) and chat with the people watching it.
For the moment, the reason for the closure of his account is still unknown. According to the American journalist specialized in esports competition Rod Breslau, this would not be related to the actions taken by Twitch on copyright infringements. In early June, Twitch sent warnings to several users who used music without permission. Twitch also banned several streamers in recent days, while the world of video games is shaken by a wave of testimonies evoking cases of harassment and assaults.
On Twitter, Dr DisRespect claims not to have received information on the reasons for this decision made by the platform.
Champions Club,
Twitch has not notified me on the specific reason behind their decision… Firm handshakes to all… https://t.co/HuTOqsyBzG
« Violence ! Speed ! Momentum ! »
Contacted by The world, Twitch says without details having taken ” appropriate action when we have evidence that a streamer has acted in violation of our community guidelines or our terms of use. These apply to all streamers, regardless of their status or importance in the community ”.
The platform has also started to reimburse subscribers to his channel. On Twitch, it is indeed possible to financially and individually support streamers by paying a sum that goes from 4.99 to 24.99 dollars every month.
In 2014, a former partner asked him to join his start-up and revive Dr DisRespect
After having started developing his alter ego on YouTube in the early 2010s, Herschel Beahm abandoned him when he joined the studio Sledgehammer Games (which notably developed several games in the series Call of Duty) in 2011 ; first as community manager, then as level designer on the multiplayer mode of Call of Duty : Advanced Warfare. Herschel Beahm finally left the studio three years later, when a former partner offered to join his start-up and revive Dr DisRespect – the colorful character he talks about in the third person.
It is on different battle royale games, where the last player alive wins, that he built his career, developed his community and settled among the most watched streamers of Twitch. ” I think that [les fans de Dr DisRespect] see a lot of confidence in him, was explaining about his avatar Herschel Beahm to The Verge, and March 2020. I think they feel valued by him. There is something about him that makes them even when they see this pretentious, confident guy who does so much, they can still understand them. “
Its motto : « Violence ! Speed ! Momentum ! » (Violence! Speed! Momentum!) Sums up the character pretty well. As rightly stated The Verge, Dr DisRespect is known for his caricatured personality: “Herschel Beahm always stays in his character, who takes video games very seriously. ” Extremely adept at his favorite games, we can also see him regularly grumble and get carried away on the screen.
Many toxic comments
But Herschel Beahm also embodies Dr DisRespect to the point of excess. Over the years, “He has also developed a reputation as a man who plays with limits and gets out where other streamers are punished”, describes the site Kotaku. The American site thus recalls that it has recently propagated conspiracy theories on the Covid-19. He was also accused of racism after caricaturing the Chinese accent, which he defended himself from. “More generally, he has become accustomed to indulging in various kinds of toxic remarks while sheltering behind his character of Dr DisRespect in order to be able to clear himself whenever he goes too far”, writes again Kotaku.
“He’s a completely different type of streamer from the rest, explained Herschel Beahm about his creation, and March 2020. He’s unique, he does too much, (…) one may have the impression that it can be a little threatening or dangerous. ”
In February 2018, after having stopped living for almost two months to solve personal problems and ” to focus on[[to] family », Dr. DisRespect had made a resounding return to the platform with a peak of 388,000 people following his live, breaking the previous record for viewers on Twitch.
“Where are you going, okay?” »
Aware of its value, the American platform made him sign a two-year exclusivity contract in March 2020. The details of the contract had not leaked, but The Verge evoked ” a lot of money “. “Let’s just say that when I started streaming, was anything like that imaginable?” If it was, you were dreaming really, really big, Herschel Beahm explained to the American site. For me, it’s quite disturbing and obviously, it changes a life, it’s rewarding. “
In 2019, he let his cameraman enter the toilet with him, which is illegal in California
And this, although Twitch had already knocked on his fingers before. In June 2019, the platform had suspended it for two weeks after an incident at E3, one of the biggest video game fairs in Los Angeles, California. Filmed continuously, he let his cameraman enter the toilet with him, which is illegal in California. He himself later admitted to having made a mistake: “If my child had been to the bathroom, I would not have wanted it to be filmed by a guy and his cameramen and to be broadcast in a live stream. It could have been much worse. “
June 24, Dr DisRespect has concluded what will become his last live on Twitch on these words: “Thanks to everyone for watching the live today. We will get out of this. Life is weird right now. We’re going to get by, ok? Whore. ” A few seconds earlier, he was talking about a notorious conspirator, the subject of a documentary on Amazon: ” I like it. It is quite enlightening. And it allows you to think outside the box. Whether certain things are true or false, it doesn’t matter. The real goal is: wake up!
–
