Popular video-game streamer Guy “Dr. DisRespect” Beahm has allegedly been banned — or at least suspended — from Twitch for broadcasting live inside a public bathroom at E3. Esports analyst Rod Breslau broke the news in a tweet on Tuesday.
Many conventions have strict anti-harassment policies, for obvious reasons. But online platforms like Twitch often make decisions like this on a case-by-case basis due to the frontier nature of the changing mixed-reality landscape.
“Doc’s channel got banned,” Jessica Blevins, manager (and wife) of well-known Twitch personality Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, tweeted without context. “Obviously saw that coming.”
California Penal Code Section 647(j)(3) PC prohibits 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.”
For Twitch’s part, the video-streaming platform explicity includes “recording someone against their will or with the intent to harm them” as part of its anti-harassment policy, adding: “Violating our policy against harassment will result in your account being suspended. Depending on the severity of the offense, harassers may be indefinitely suspended on the first violation.”
According to Kotaku, Beahm “[entered] 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.”
The broadcaster’s channel is currently inaccessible.
