Women’s Aid, a national organisation working to prevent and address the impact of domestic violence and abuse including coercive control in Ireland, will no longer maintain a presence on the platform X from 8th January 2026.
The organisation has watched the increased levels of unchecked hate, misogyny, racism and anti-LGBTI+ content on the platform with growing unease and concern. The current scandal which has seen the creation and sharing of AI deepfakes, non-consensual intimate imagery, and production of child sexual abuse material by X’s own AI Grok, in breach of the platforms own guidelines and regulations is a tipping point.
This online violence against women and children – especially girls – has often devastating real life impacts and we no longer view it as appropriate to use such a platform to share our work.
This has not been an easy decision. Women’s Aid was an early user of social media, including Twitter/X since 2009. We have engaged with and informed our supporters of the prevalence and impact of domestic abuse, promote our frontline support services to those affected and push for positive social change.
We firmly believe that social media platforms have a crucial role to play in a healthy society, providing crucial townhall spaces for thoughtful, respectful, constructive and positive dialogue. By leaving we acknowledge that we are ceding the stage to the malign actors, and bots who will continue to overrun the space creating and spreading disinformation and other harmful content with effective impunity. However, as an organisation working to end violence against women and children, we balance the costs with any benefits to our continued engagement in this space and find we can no longer tolerate this situation.
While we have reduced leverage on this platform, we call on Governments and Regulators in both Ireland and at EU level to act swiftly and decisively to create effective accountability, legislation and regulation to ensure companies must have guardrails that protect truth, and prevent harm so that in the future any user can use X, and any online platform safely.
Riot Games announced today the 30 recipients of their $10,000 community grants as a part of Progress Days inspired by Riot’s new TV series, Arcane League of Legends. Throughout the month of November, Riot is uniting its games and products for a global event called RiotX Arcane to bring together players and fans for the launch of the company’s first television series. As a part of the celebration, Riot is honoring the incredible work that these nonprofits are doing all around the world in hopes of inspiring progress.
Over the summer, Riot invited players from around the world to become a ‘force for good’ and nominate a nonprofit and/or a cause area that was important to them. Along with the nomination, players were asked to share a testimonial to explain why this cause was meaningful to them and how it was impacting their local community. Over 19,000 submissions came in from players around the globe and Riot’s social impact team, with the help of their partners ImpactAssets and GlobalGiving, vetted and chose 30 nonprofits to receive $10,000 donations. These high-impact nonprofits support a wide range of countries and cause areas, including an organization from New Zealand that supports community wellbeing and a nonprofit from Brazil that advocates for the rights of people with intellectual disabilities.
“Throughout Riot’s history we’ve seen time and again players come together as one collective community to support the smaller communities they are a part of,” said Jeffrey Burrell, Director of Social Impact. “I want to give the credit where it’s truly due and that’s to the players. It’s really special when we put out a call like this to players and get such an overwhelming response. We couldn’t do this work without them.”
The Riot Games Social Impact Fund is Riot’s nonprofit engine for our collective efforts for global social impact. Through the Social Impact Fund, in partnership with ImpactAssets and managed by GlobalGiving, Riot was able to distribute these grants to over 18 countries around the world. By being able to involve hyper-local NGOs serving local community needs, Riot is able to directly support the causes and interests of their community of players on what matters most to them.
Here are the 30 nonprofit winners:
América Solidaria Argentina, APAE Brasil, Ape Action Africa, Asian American Success Inc., BeLonG To, Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation, Clean Up Australia, Coalition for Rainforest Nations, Cordem ABP, Fundación Aquí Nadie Se Rinde I.A.P, Fundación Minga Valpo , Fundación Superación Pobreza, Genesis Women’s Shelter, Ingenium ABP, Instituto Vovô Chiquinho, LÖSEV, Maslow Project, Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault (MOCSA), Plan International Japan, Prairie State Legal Services, Shatterproof, Société Protectrice des Animaux (SPA), SPEAR Islington (Resurgo), Story Tapestries, The Nature Conservancy, The Table Community Food Centre, Verein für krebskranke Kinder Harz eV, WAI Wanaka, WaterAid, and World Wildlife Fund-SA.
“The past 18 months have been particularly tough for LGBTI+ young people. Even before Covid-19, LGBTI+ young people experienced a significantly increased risk of depression, anxiety, and suicide ideation. The global pandemic has heightened these mental health challenges, and for many LGBTI+ young people, the past year has been a lonely, anxious time. Earlier this year, 97% of LGBTI+ young people told us for their struggles with anxiety, stress, and depression. We have seen a huge rise in demand for our life-saving support services. With this funding from Riot Games, we can continue to grow and flex to meet the emerging needs of LGBTI+ young people in their homes, schools, and communities. It means so much to us that a member of our community recognized the vital work that we do to support LGBTI+ youth and nominated us for this grant.” – Chris Rowan Fundraising Assistant
The $300,000 in community grants adds to another successful year of social impact. Earlier this year, Riot launched the charitable skin “Elderwood Ornn” and mobilized players to achieve real impact in their own communities while participating in a global event that raised over $7 million for the Social Impact Fund. Also this year, VALORANT held its first in-game fundraiser with a Give Back Bundle which raised over $5.5 million. 50% of the proceeds from weapon skins and 100% from accessories in the Give Back Bundle went towards Riot’s Social Impact Fund to be distributed to various nonprofits. In total, players have raised over $12 million through Riot’s in-game fundraisers for 2021.
