The Twitch streaming personality known as Doctor DisRespect decided to take a camera into a public restroom during E3 earlier this week, earning himself not only a ban from the popular games conference, but also his home platform.
While publishers like EA, Microsoft and Bethesda have been hosting games showcases since last Saturday, the E3 show floor was not opened to the public until Tuesday, June 11. It took Guy Beahm, better known as Doctor DisRespect, less than a day to bring his trip to the show to an end, as he decided to livestream content from a bathroom within the Los Angeles Convention Center, where E3 is held. The original report notes that this was Beahm’s first stream live from an event like this, but even that inexperience doesn’t excuse broadcasting people in a restroom.
Both Twitch and the company that runs E3, the Electronic Software Association, agreed. In short order, DisRespect’s Twitch stream was banned, followed by his pass to E3 being revoked. The reasoning is pretty simple: The guy broke the law.
I’m no legal expert, but I’m pretty sure something similar to California’s “invasion of privacy” law is in affect pretty much everywhere in the country. It protects people from, say, being recorded while using a public restroom. Similarly, Twitch’s own user policy states that anyone streaming must adhere to the laws of wherever they’re recording from. So once DisRespect decided to live up to his name in an E3 bathroom, the two entities had little choice but to act.
According to the description of the video, thousands of viewers were tuned into DisRespect’s channel at the time of filming. He reportedly walked into the bathroom and shouted the word “Bodyguard” before hiding in a stall. Several individuals were using the urinals at the time, one of them possibly a child. Not done yet, DisRespect apparently returned to the bathroom a couple of times to use a urinal, all while filming. And, again, other people were caught in the shots.
No word yet on if additional actions will be taken and DisRespect does not appear to have made any statements himself. Probably a wise idea.
