Twitch CEO criticised for promoting own channel in other streams during charity event

Twitch CEO Dan Clancy criticised for promoting his channel in other streams during charity broadcast for St Jude’s.

Twitch CEO Dan Clancy has faced criticism after promoting his own channel in other streams while preparing for a charity broadcast. Clancy streamed for four hours on July 18 during the GCX Marathon, an event raising funds for St Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.

Before his broadcast, Clancy posted in chats of several popular Twitch channels, requesting raids for his upcoming charity stream.

“I am shamelessly going into chat of streamers I know to ask for raids when they are done,” Clancy stated in a message shared across multiple channels. He added, “I am doing my first charity stream for St Jude’s as part of the GCX Marathon.”

The same message appeared in at least five channels, including those of Gassymexican and Fanfan, reaching a collective audience of over a million followers.

In one instance, a channel moderator timed out Clancy’s account for ten minutes for perceived self-promotion.

Clancy’s stream raised approximately $4,000 USD for St Jude’s, contributing to the GCX Marathon’s collective total of over $350,000 USD at the time of reporting.

While Twitch’s Terms of Service do not directly prohibit self-promotion in other chatrooms, guidelines on spam and user disruption state that activities harming user experience are prohibited.

The situation was highlighted on social media, with content creator Gothalion describing Clancy’s actions as “rude,” questioning why support had not been arranged in advance. While some users labelled the actions as “disrespectful” despite the charitable intent.