“I recall that Dr Disrespect was made aware by the individual that they were underage during the conversation, after which he indicated that this was no problem and continued on,” the former employee says. “There was no confusion. Messages sent after this was acknowledged were no less graphic and in sexually explicit nature than before, and I think more than the categorization of ‘leaning too much in the direction of being inappropriate’ might indicate.”
The ex-Twitch employee has also provided
Rolling Stone a more detailed account of internal conversations at Twitch following the report of Beahm’s messages and his subsequent ban. They say the details of Beahm’s case are coming out because of Conners’ explosive tweet last week. “Cody definitely got the ball rolling. Me and many of my former colleagues are only comfortable speaking up now because of it. Our priority is always to the safety of the [alleged] victim and to keep their identity secret,” they said.
As some of its streamers faced a flood of sexual misconduct allegations in June 2020, Twitch created an incident response team codenamed “Gold Sparrow” to develop a process to investigate and take action on the reports as one unit, the former employee says. “We wanted to be able to process mounting investigations quicker and with more resources while providing as much support for the victims as possible,” the former employee says. (Twitch did not provide comment by press time.)
When the initial report about Beahm’s alleged inappropriate messages came through in 2020, an investigation began. “After viewing the contents of the Whisper conversation, it quickly became clear the egregiousness of conduct and what actions Twitch must take,” the former employee says. “The decision to permanently terminate Beahm was relatively quick, due to the severity of the behavior.”
Twitch can’t and won’t make the alleged messages public, the ex-employee says, as this “not only endangers the victim and investigations by law enforcement”
In early 2021, the Twitch trust and safety team created OSIT, an investigation team for reports of off-site misconduct by creators. At the time, the company
described the initiative as a direct response to “allegations of sexual misconduct that surfaced across the gaming industry over the summer.” In assessing those allegations, the company said, it had “realized that our current policy regarding off-service misconduct was not clear enough.” Among the alleged off-site behaviors it pledged to investigate were sexual exploitation of children, including child grooming.
Following Beahm’s ban from Twitch and time away from the spotlight, he announced a
return to streaming on YouTube in August 2020. But while he was free to use both that platform and Facebook Gaming,
neither offered him an exclusive partnership. His lack of a streaming contract was notable for a celebrity in the industry at a time when other streamers like
Valkyrae,
Ludwig Ahgren, and
TimTheTatman were signing seven-figure, multi-year deals.
YouTube’s former global head of gaming partnerships at Google, Ryan Wyatt, confirmed to
Rolling Stone that Beahm was not offered a contract due to chatter about the circumstances of his Twitch ban. He says that a Twitch employee and journalists investigating the incident told YouTube employees that it involved inappropriate messages to a minor.
“The unfortunate part of all of it was there were so many rumors circulating in the industry, one that a minor was involved,” he says. “But no one produced first-hand knowledge or evidence, and because of those rumors, there was no reason to entertain doing any deal with [Beahm], and no evidence produced means you can’t act on a [terms of service] violation. The whole situation got even more confusing when Twitch settled and effectively said, ‘no wrongdoing’ which made everyone in the industry dismiss the rumors, but even still, there was never a reason to do a deal with him after that ban.”
A spokesperson for CAA, Beahm’s talent agency since signing in 2019, tells Rolling Stone he is no longer a client and hasn’t been for sometime. Several high-profile streamers, including Kai Cenat, Codemiko, and Valkyrae have
condemned Beahm in recent days. The San Francisco 49ers, for whom he had sometimes played a promotional role, announced that it was
cutting ties with him, while the video game franchise
NBA 2K said it would
remove his character from the series.
“Even today I’m humbled by that experience,” says the former Twitch employee who was at the company when it mobilized to address the reports of misconduct by Beahm and others in the summer of 2020. “The bravery of the victims speaking out and the commitment by my colleagues to doing right by them. I hope that we’re all on a better path now for it.”
