Twitch turns popular charity and safety tools into built-in features – The Washington Post

This week, Twitch launched two new features, Twitch Charity and Shared Ban Info, inspired by practices and tools developed by its community. They’ve been well received after a year in which Twitch has been accused by ex-employees and streamers of forsaking community in pursuit of profit.Twitch Charity, which entered beta on Tuesday, is a built-in fundraising feature that allows streamers to set a goal and enter “charity mode.” This displays a donation button and progress meter next to a broadcast, the proceeds of which go to a charity of the streamer’s choosing via PayPal’s donation system, the PayPal Giving Fund. As a result, Twitch does not take a cut.Charity streams are immensely popular on Twitch, with streamers collectively (and sometimes individually) managing to raise millions for causes like humanitarian efforts in Ukraine and St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. For years, streamers have had to rely on third-party tools and companies like Tiltify and Softgiving, the latter of which has faced criticism for quietly helping major streamers profit off charity work.“Why is this better? ‘Simplifying a lot of logistical hassles’ is a pretty decent TL;DR answer,” Twitch wrote in a blog announcing the feature. “For streamers, it makes raising money for…
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