Twitchis being questioned after it approved the addition of an organization accused of being anti-trans to its list ofTwitch-integrated charities. The latest wave of officially approved charities for Twitch’s on-site charity functionality includes LGB Alliance. Its description on Twitch states outright that it’s a threat “conflating biological sex with the notion of gender identity.” LGB Alliance isn’t the only charity that Twitch added recently receiving criticism.
Charity streams are frequent and popular onstreaming services including Twitch. To raise money for a chosen charity, Twitch streamers have in the past had to use third-party tools for donations to go directly to these charities. Twitch has since created functionality so that streamers can do this all through functionality on Twitch’s own website. However, that requires Twitch itself to officially sanction which charities it allows streamers to raise money for on its website.
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On December 7, Twitch updated its list of officially sanctioned charities with “tens of thousands” of new organizations. The LGB Alliance was included in this list, allowing streamers to choose it for donations. The Global Project Against Hate and Extremism’s 2022 report for both Ireland and Australia characterized the LGB Alliance as an anti-transgender hate group, in part due to ongoing efforts to excludetrans peoplefrom events.
Another group also included in Twitch’s recent charity additions is The Autism Community in Action, previously known as Autism Speaks, which has been accused of hostility toward those with autism under the guise of “curing” them. A thread on Twitch’s UserVoice forum forfeedback asks Twitch to acknowledgeThe Autism Community in Action “breaks the Off Service Conduct Policy” and so must be removed from Twitch’s charity platform.
While Twitch has not responded to questions about these specific new additions to its charity platform, it has previously been dismissive of similar criticism. In a UserVoice thread titled “Remove hate groups” asking Twitch to remove certain charities from its platform, Twitch responded by saying, “people within our community may not agree with or support all of the included organizations, even if they are currently compliant with our policies.” It further states that Twitch has partnered with PayPal Giving Fund, which monitors and verifies the list of charities.
Given Twitch’s past response, its stance appears to be that it’s fine for LGB Alliance and The Autism Community in Action to remain on the platform despite their nature.Twitch has been harshly criticizedin the past for certain behavior toward trans streamers and those with disabilities.Twitchdoes typically respond if criticism grows loud enough, though, but slowly.
