Spotify has confirmed that recruitment ads for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are now not operating on its platform. Nevertheless, regardless of renewed scrutiny following the horrific murder of Nicole Renee Good by an ICE officer in Minneapolis, the streaming big has not indicated any change in its stance relating to future authorities advert campaigns.
A Spotify spokesperson confirmed to Variety that the adverts ended late in 2025, stressing that their disappearance was not associated to the deadly capturing of Good by an ICE agent earlier this week: “There are at the moment no ICE adverts operating 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 a minimum of 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 (probably completely 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, and so they might come again if Spotify is prepared to take the cash. Capitalism!
In November, Rolling Stone reported that Spotify had acquired $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 line 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 spanking new recruits. The adverts sparked widespread criticism from listeners, artists, and advocacy teams. Which is not stunning both contemplating ICE is out there killing folks and then lying about it.
On the time, Spotify defended its choice, stating: “This commercial is a part of a broad marketing campaign the U.S. authorities is operating throughout tv, streaming, and on-line channels. The content material doesn’t violate our promoting insurance policies.”
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