Twitch CEO Dan Clancy recently sparked controversy after requesting raids on his own channel to several other popular Twitch streams. This happened just before his four-hour charity broadcast on July 18, which was part of the GCX Marathon supporting St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.
For those unfamiliar, a raid is when a streamer sends their viewers to another channel at the end of their broadcast. While requesting a raid isn’t against Twitch’s Terms of Service or Community Guidelines, it’s generally considered poor form to repeatedly ask for one. Doing so can be seen as spam, which Twitch explicitly prohibits.
Clancy openly admitted to “shamelessly” entering chats of streamers he knows to ask for raids leading up to his charity stream. His message, which mentioned the GCX Marathon and St. Jude’s charity, appeared in at least five channels, including those of well-known creators like Gassymexican and Fanfan, reaching over a million followers combined.
One moderator even timed out Clancy’s account for 10 minutes due to what was perceived as self-promotion spam. The GCX Marathon, running from July 14 to 21 and has raised over $350,000 USD so far, with Clancy’s own four-hour stream contributing around $4,000 USD. While Twitch’s official rules don’t explicitly forbid self-promotion in other streamers’ chats, they do prohibit spam and disruptive behavior.
Social media picked up the story with many voices expressing disappointment. VTubers and streamers called Clancy’s actions “disrespectful” and “shameful,” even if done for charity. Gothalion said that the CEO’s behavior “as rude as f*” and questioned why more professional support channels weren’t arranged beforehand.
Like. I guess I shouldn’t expect proper etiquette when the ceo had zero comments on the Ray J botting situation.
— Gothalion (@Gothalion) July 20, 2025
At the time of writing, neither Dan Clancy nor Twitch has publicly responded to the backlash. It remains to be seen if the company will address the concerns raised by its community.
You can watch Clancy’s charity broadcast here: Twitch Video.
