'I found out at the same time as everyone else': ex-Twitch director calls secrecy over Dr Disrespect's ban a 'big mistake' and defends hot tub streams

Six years after the most mysterious ban in Twitch history, a former director of the platform has spoken out. In an interview with Eldorado, picked up by Dexerto, Marcus 'djWheat' Graham said the lack of transparency over the removal of Guy 'Dr Disrespect' Beahm in June 2020 was 'a big mistake.' According to him, the policy of not discussing bans applied inside the company too: anyone outside the small group in charge was kept in the dark. 'I found out at the exact same time that everyone else found out,' he said.

The case went years without an official explanation. Beahm and Twitch reached a legal settlement in March 2022, with no admission of wrongdoing. Only in June 2024 did the streamer himself admit he had exchanged messages with a minor in 2017, acknowledging that some conversations went too far but denying any crime. That September, on his return to streaming, he denied sexting the minor and accused former platform staff of taking the messages out of context.

In the same interview, Graham revisited another Twitch controversy: the 2021 hot tub streaming craze. He said that, if he could go back, he would have answered critics with a blunt 'why do you care?' 'If you don't want to watch that, then don't watch it,' he said, arguing the creators were not breaking any rules and that gambling streams were far more harmful than 'a man or a woman sitting in a hot tub talking to chat.'