Apple has updated its iTunes desktop and mobile storefronts to grant users the ability to donate money to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a U.S. nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation.
Users have the option of donating in $5, $10, $25, $50, $100, or $200 increments. Apple states that 100 percent of donations will be transferred to the Southern Poverty Law Center, and that it won’t share user information with the organization.
Apple’s charitable work
The addition of the iTunes donation page comes shortly after Apple stated that it would be making $1 million donations to both the Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti-Defamation League.
“Tim Cook has been the leader in the fight against hate on tech platforms,” said Heidi Beirich, leader of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project, at the time. “It would be a much better country if people had followed his lead on this front.”
Apple has also taken steps to hit back at online hate groups, including removing Apple Pay support from websites which offer neo-Nazi iconography for sale.
Tim Cook additionally wrote an impassioned letter to employees, subsequently shared online, in which he took aim at Donald Trump for appearing to support white supremacists in the aftermath of the recent tragic events in Charlottesville.
This isn’t the first time that Apple has lent its considerable reach to support charitable endeavors it agrees with. Earlier this year, Apple updated its homepage in the U.K. following the tragic Grenfell Tower fire, letting users purchase a charity single or make a direct donation.
Apple and its employees have also supported charitable initiatives through charity auctions and changing its policies to let people donate to their favorite charity or nonprofit organization using Apple Pay.
