Dr DisRespect’s Twitch account suspended because of E3 bathroom stream
(CNN) — The Twitch account of gamer Dr DisRespect was suspended on Wednesday and his pass for the gaming expo E3 was revoked after he live-streamed from a restroom.
Dr DisRespect — real name Herschel “Guy” Beahm IV — streamed the restroom visit on his Twitch channel during the expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center. He called it his first IRL (in real life) stream.
With thousands of people watching the stream, Beahm, 37, walked into a restroom with a camera operator. One clip showed him urinating into a urinal, another entering a stall. Other people, including one who appeared to be a child, were visible.
Twitch has an anti-harassment policy that forbids streamers from recording someone against their will, which almost was certainly the case for the unsuspecting people caught in the stream.
According to Twitch’s community guidelines, “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.”
Twitch also does not allow for the unauthorized sharing of private information, stating in their community guidelines that includes “sharing content that violates another’s reasonable expectation of privacy, for example streaming from a private space, without permission.”
California also has an invasion of privacy law, which makes it a crime to view the inside of a bathroom with a camera.
Violations of California Penal Code 647(j) are charged as a misdemeanor, and punishable by up to six months in jail and/or a maximum fine of $1,000.
However, if a child is viewed inside a bathroom with a camera, the punishment is increased to a year in county jail and/or a maximum fine of $2,000.
Dr DisRespect’s Twitch channel has 25,000 subscribers and 3.5 million followers, according to TwitchTracker. His YouTube channel has 1 million subscribers.
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