Spotify is no long running advertisements for the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the streaming service has confirmed, after the Trump administration campaign ended in late 2025.
“There are currently no ICE ads running on Spotify,” the Swedish company said in a statement. “The advertisements mentioned were part of a US government recruitment campaign that ran across all major media and platforms.”
Since April, the government ads have also run on Amazon, YouTube, Hulu and Max among other streaming companies, with the aim of recruiting more than 10,000 deportation officers by the end of 2025.
Previously, Spotify said that the ads, which encouraged US listeners to “fulfil your mission to protect America” and offered $50,000 in signing bonuses, did not “violate our advertising policies”.
“This advertisement is part of a broad campaign the US government is running across television, streaming, and online channels,” the company said in October. “However, users can mark any ad with a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to help manage their ads preferences.”
The ad campaign ended before an ICE agent fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Good in her car in Minneapolis on Wednesday. Last night, US border patrol agents shot two more people in Portland, whose condition is currently unknown.
It also ended before Indivisible, the grassroots movements behind the No Kings demonstrations, sent an open letter to Spotify’s new CEOs, Alex Norström and Gustav Söderström, on their first day at work on 2 January petitioning them to drop the ads and make a public commitment to “reviewing and updating Spotify’s advertising policy to prohibit government propaganda and hate-based recruitment ad campaigns”.
In September, it was announced that Spotify founder and former CEO Daniel Ek would step down to become executive chairman. Ek’s €600m investment in the military AI company Helsing, of which he is also chairman, has also been a source of discontent among musicians and listeners: in September, UK trip-hop group Massive Attack withdrew their music from Spotify in protest.
Spotify has faced a number of high-profile musicians withdrawing their music from the platform in protest at Ek’s investment in Helsing, with some motivated by the ICE ads, among them Australian psych-rock band King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Canadian post-rockers Godspeed You! Black Emperor, US indie band Deerhoof and US singer-songwriter Kadhja Bonet. Numerous listeners have also reported quitting the service for political reasons.
The end of this specific advertising campaign certainly does not mean an end to ads of this nature, whatever platform might broadcast them: ICE has reportedly planned a $100m year-long media barrage for what it calls “wartime recruitment”, targeting conservative radio show listeners, gun rights aficionados, military affairs followers and men’s interests enthusiasts.
“Want to deport illegals with your absolute boys?” one of the agency’s ads says. Officials will also invest in deals with lifestyle influencers paid to push the administration’s anti-immigration agenda.
