Spotify Confirms ICE Recruitment Ads Are No Longer Running on Platform

Indivisible, the organization behind the No Kings protests, is escalating its pressure campaign against Spotify with an argument that has become increasingly difficult to dismiss. For months, the world’s most powerful music platform has functioned as a delivery system for Immigration and Customs Enforcement recruitment propaganda. And after the murder of Renee Nicole Macklin Good by ICE agents in Minneapolis yesterday, it’s all the harder to pretend that this arrangement belongs to the realm of abstraction or policy debate.

via: Variety

Last October, Spotify drew criticism for running U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recruitment ads on the platform as part of the Trump administration’s $30 billion investment to hire at least 10,000 more deportation officers by the end of 2025.

In the wake of the fatal shooting of a woman by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on Wednesday, the streaming service confirms to Variety that it’s no longer running the promotion.

“There are currently no ICE ads running on Spotify,” a Spotify spokesperson tells Variety. “The advertisements mentioned were part of a U.S. government recruitment campaign that ran across all major media and platforms.”

The recruitment ads were running on various platforms including Hulu, Max, YouTube and Pandora as far back as last April. In November, Rolling Stone reported that Spotify had received $74,000 from the Department of Homeland Security to run their advertisements, while Google and YouTube were paid $3 million on Spanish-language advertising promoting self-deportation, according to Equis data.

The Spotify ICE ads, which were played between songs for users on the ad-supported free plan, offered $50,000 in signing bonuses. After some subscribers claimed they canceled their subscriptions, Spotify told Newsweek, “This advertisement is part of a broad campaign the US government is running across television, streaming, and online channels. The content does not violate our advertising policies. However, users can mark any ad with a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to help manage their ads preferences.“

In late October, the non-profit Indivisible Project called for a boycott of the streaming service in response to the ICE ads, encouraging the company to stop supporting the campaign. Last month, Indivisible Project joined with Working Families and 50501 Movement to launch a “Spotify Unwrapped” boycott in response to its annual “Wrapped” campaign, urging users to cancel their subscriptions.