Spotify has confirmed that recruitment ads for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are now not working on its platform. Nonetheless, regardless of renewed scrutiny following the horrific homicide of Nicole Renee Good by an ICE officer in Minneapolis, the streaming big has not indicated any change in its stance concerning future authorities advert campaigns.
A Spotify spokesperson confirmed to Selection that the adverts ended late in 2025, stressing that their disappearance was not associated to the deadly taking pictures of Good by an ICE agent earlier this week: “There are at present no ICE adverts working on Spotify. The ads talked about had been a part of a U.S. authorities recruitment marketing campaign that ran throughout all main media and platforms.”
The marketing campaign in query was a part of the Trump administration’s $30 billion initiative to rent at the very least 10,000 new deportation officers by the tip of 2025. Recruitment adverts appeared throughout quite a few platforms, together with Hulu, Max, YouTube, Pandora, Amazon, and Spotify.
Although maybe extra disappointing is a (presumably totally different) Spotify spokesperson’s feedback to Paste journal, saying: “I can’t speculate on hypothetical future campaigns however, as is the case with all main platforms, any future adverts want to stick to the corporate’s insurance policies.” So this is not actually Spotify pulling the ICE adverts – they simply ended, they usually might come again if Spotify is keen to take the cash. Capitalism!
In November, Rolling Stone reported that Spotify had obtained $74,000 from the Division of Homeland Safety to run ICE recruitment adverts. By comparability, Google and YouTube had been reportedly paid $3 million for Spanish-language promoting encouraging self-deportation, in keeping with Equis knowledge.
Spotify’s ICE adverts had been performed between songs for customers on the platform’s free, ad-supported tier and promoted $50,000 signing bonuses for brand new recruits. The adverts sparked widespread criticism from listeners, artists, and advocacy teams. Which is not shocking both contemplating ICE is on the market killing of us and then mendacity about it.
On the time, Spotify defended its determination, stating: “This commercial is a part of a broad marketing campaign the U.S. authorities is working throughout tv, streaming, and on-line channels. The content material doesn’t violate our promoting insurance policies.”
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