Spotify is no longer running ICE recruitment ads
Spotify's ICE recruitment ads no longer run on the platform, following months of backlash and boycotts.
Confirmed to Variety and verified by Mashable, Spotify is not running any more advertisements encouraging Americans to sign up as deportation agents for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The news comes in the wake of the killing of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on Wednesday.
"There are currently no ICE ads running on Spotify," a Spotify spokesperson told Mashable. "The advertisements mentioned were part of a U.S. government recruitment campaign that ran across all major media and platforms."
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"The campaign ended on most platforms and channels, including Spotify, at the end of last year."
Since Oct. 2025, many Spotify users have boycotted the app for hosting these ICE recruitment ads — as well as for CEO Daniel Ek's investment in military AI defense company Helsing.
Spotify has been one tech platform among many — Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Facebook — reportedly offered large financial incentives to run ICE ads, as part of the agency's $100 million marketing recruitment strategy. Variety's report notes that Spotify's ICE ads "were played between songs for users on the ad-supported free plan, offered $50,000 in signing bonuses."
UPDATE: Jan. 9, 2026, 3:58 p.m. Added statement from Spotify including clarification on the campaign ending last year.
Topics Spotify
Shannon Connellan is Mashable's UK Editor based in London, formerly Mashable's Australia Editor, but emotionally, she lives in the Creel House. A Tomatometer-approved critic, Shannon writes about entertainment, tech, social good, science, culture, and Australian horror.
