Twitch removes hate group from approved charities following backlash

Twitch has removed LGB Alliance from its list of approved charities following backlash from streamers and viewers.

On 7th December, Twitch announced it had added “tens of thousands” of new global charities to its charity tool for streamers. The feature was added in July in a US-only beta, and became available to all partners in August. Twitch and Paypal Giving Fund do not take a cut of donations raised through the charity tool.

“We added tens of thousands more Paypal-vetted charities from the US and dozens of different countries,” Twitch stated in its blog announcement. The company came under fire from users when they discovered LGB Alliance, a UK-based hate group opposed to trans rights, was one of the new additions to Twitch’s approved charities. The group was controversially granted charity status in April 2021 by the UK government.

Users were quick to point out the anti-trans policies of LGB Alliance, with many requesting the group be removed from Twitch’s list on Twitter. On UserVoice, Twitch’s user forum, the most upvoted post was titled “Remove Hate Groups”, and called for the platform to remove LGB Alliance. The post received over 16,000 upvotes.