Spotify: ICE Recruitment Ads Don’t Breach Company Policy

Users of Spotify’s free tier are being targeted with an aggressive advertising campaign urging them to ““join the mission to protect America”.

The older I get, the more I think that Paul Verhoeven was right about everything. Absolutely everything. It’s a thought that occurs to me pretty much every morning as I start my day by blasting social media directly into my optic nerve, but it was particularly front-of-mind when ICE and the US Department Of Homeland Security starting running recruitment ads on Spotify. Straight out of Starship Troopers, man. Would you like to know more?

As reported by The Independent, the ads, which urge listeners to “join the mission to protect America” and “fulfill your mission” by applying to join ICE, are part of a massive recruiting push for the agency, along with a generous signing incentives, student loan forgiveness, and other enlistment incentives. And, of course, it’s not just Spotify: customers have reported being hit with ads on YouTube, HBO, Hulu, Pandora, X, Meta, and more. Those last two you’d pretty much expect, though, let’s be honest here.

Another ad, targeted at serving cops in Chicago, suggested that they were sick of being “…ordered to stand down while dangerous illegals walk free”, which is probably not the sort of thing you want interrupting your lo-fi study beats.

It’s worth noting that, of course, if you’re a premium subscriber, your fees insulate you from the horrors of ordinary, everyday advertising, let alone weird, fashy “would you beat your neighbours for money?” advertising. Which means this stuff is getting thrown at people far enough down the socioeconomic ladder that a) Spotify‘s a bit pricey, and b) those financial incentives are nothing to sneeze at. And while I don’t want to stereotype wrestling fans (everyone’s into wrestling these days except me) HBO ran the recruiting ads during AEW, so I’d say they are.

But back to Spotify, who quickly fanged out a statement abrogating them of all guilt.

“This advertisement is part of a broad campaign the US government is running across television, streaming, and online channels,” it reads, which yes, we know, buddy, before going on to note that “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 ad preferences.” Goodo. People definitely bother to do that.

This comes at a time when artists are pulling their music from Spotify in… well, not quite droves, but whatever the pupal stage of a drove is. Deerhoof, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Godspeed you! black emperor, Massive Attack and more have departed the platform, with Gizz stating, ““A PSA to those unaware: Spotify CEO Daniel Ek invests millions in AI military drone technology. We just removed our music from the platform.”

This recent controversy has drawn condemnation from more acts. Post hardcore outfit Thursday released a statement on Instagram, saying “Thursday is an independent band and we join the wider independent musical community in calling upon Spotify to remove any and all ICE recruitment advertising from its platform.”

Epitaph Records took a similar tack, saying “Artists and fans deserve platforms that reflect the values of the culture they sustain. We call on Spotify to remove these ads immediately.”

Guess we’ll just have to see how well that works.