You Can Now Use iTunes to Help Fight Hate and Bigotry

You Can Now Use iTunes to Help Fight Hate and Bigotry
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Apple has begun accepting donations to the Southern Poverty Law Center via iTunes in the wake of the protests and violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is a civil rights and advocacy organization that monitors hate groups and extremists across the United States. Apple’s SPLC iTunes integration follows the “Unite the Right” event in Charlottesville, Virginia last weekend. Originally slated as a protest to challenge the tearing down of Confederate statues, the event quickly garnered media attention as the protester’s ranks were tinged by neo-Nazis and white nationalists. The weekend turned violent: one woman was killed and 19 other injured when a white supremacist drove a car into a crowd of counter-protesters.

The donation page now appears on the desktop and mobile iTunes storefronts, and is available under the New Music, Hot Tracks and Recent Releases sections of the platform. Users can use the page to donate to the civil rights organization in increments of $5, $10, $25, $50, $100 and $200.

Donations can be made via a credit or debit card tied to an Apple account. The company said that 100 percent of the proceeds will be transferred to the SPLC. No user information will be shared with the civil rights group. Any money given will not qualify as taxable donations, however.

Following the protests in Charlottesville, Apple CEO Tim Cook penned a strongly worded memo condemning hate and bigotry across the country and pledging to step up Apple’s efforts in combatting racism. Apple Pay support was also cut off for websites that sold white nationalist or Nazi-themed products, and Apple itself pledged to make two $1 million donations to the SPLC and the Anti-Defamation League.

“In the wake of the tragic and repulsive events in Charlottesville, we are stepping up to help organizations who work to rid our country of hate,” Cook wrote last week in the employee memo.


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