While some of those charities flagged have been taken off of the list, one remains.
A video live streaming service has been forced to remove a “trans exclusionary” charity from its list of groups approved for fundraising on the platform following an online campaign.
The LGB Alliance - which claims to be “gender critical” and has faced widespread criticism for its “anti-trans” work - will no longer be included on Twitch’s roster of charities which users can support.
Ahead of Giving Tuesday in November 2022 Twitch launched an expansion of its native charity tools, which let creators host fundraising streams for supported organisations.
The move expanded the roster of charities which streamers could support from around 250 to over 95,000.
However, the platform faced significant backlash after controversial groups, which online activists criticised for their discriminatory views, were included on the list.
Following the decision, a Twitch user requested on the site’s forum that a number of groups, including LGB Alliance and Autism Speaks - registered charities in the UK - be removed from the list.
The post was backed by more than 16,000 Twitch users, and was acted upon four days later - with Twitch confirming that LGB Alliance had been taken off of its list of approved charities.
Howe
In a statement, the platform said: “Thank you for sharing your concerns with us.
“Following a thorough review, we have removed the LGB Alliance from our list of approved charities. Twitch does not allow charities that violate our hateful conduct policies on Twitch, or whose organization or leadership engage in or promote behaviors that violate our Off-Service policy.
“We include a wide range of organizations in Twitch’s charity tool through our partnership with the PayPal Giving Fund so that streamers can choose which charities they align with and wish to support. Inclusion on this list is not an endorsement from Twitch.
“However, we regularly review the list and remove organizations that violate our policies. Please continue to share your feedback to help us improve charity on Twitch.”
The Off-Service policy covers “severe offences committed by Twitch users” that “can create a substantial safety risk to the Twitch community.”
Offences can include making credible threats of mass violence, being involved in known hate groups and spreading harmful misinformation.
Having been removed from the platform, the charity said it would now be in contact with Twitch asking to be reinstated - with the LGB Alliance having repeatedly denied accusations of transphobia.
An LGB Alliance spokesperson told Civil Society: “We assume that this is an error on the part of Twitch as they have not been in contact with us. We have written to the chief executive asking for our account to be reinstated and await his response.”
LGB Alliance were registered as a charity in 2021 the use of “inflammatory language” on social media.
In a further statement, Twitch responded to claims that Autism Speaks should also be taken off their list of approved charities.
In a post on Twitch, one user wrote that removing hate groups would improve the charity aspect of streaming, identifying Autism Speaks as one such group.
Autism Speaks has been criticised for further stigmatising autism and promoting therapy tactics that many advocates say are harmful toward autistic people.
However, Twitch said that the group did not violate its hateful conduct policy - unlike the LGB Alliance.
They wrote: “Our goal is to provide streamers with a wide variety of charitable organizations and enable them to decide who to support. The scale of this program may mean that people within our community may not agree with or support all of the included organizations, even if they are currently compliant with our policies.
“Twitch partners with the PayPal Giving Fund, and they monitor charities on a daily basis for verification of their 501(c)(3) status in country-specific registries, compliance with PayPal Acceptable Use Policy, and more. We don’t allow charities that violate our hateful conduct policies on Twitch, or whose organization or leadership engage in or promote behaviors that violate our Off-Service policy. At this time, this organization does not violate our Off-Service policy.
“Thank you for taking the time to share your concerns with us. We’ve added a number of charities that support Autism-related causes, including the Autistic Women and Nonbinary Network, based on feedback from the community. We encourage you to continue sharing charities you would like to see included or that you believe may violate our policies so we can evaluate.”
Autism Speaks told NBC News that they were proud to promote “understanding and acceptance” of autism and that they are "committed to fostering opportunities that can have widespread, meaningful impact".
The group added: "Autism Speaks is proud to have the opportunity to reach individuals who are passionate about fueling its mission to support autistic people of all ages and levels of support and their families.”
