Does spotify suppoer ice at all yes or no
Executive summary
Spotify did run U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recruitment advertisements during 2025, a fact confirmed by multiple outlets and by Spotify itself, but the company says those specific ads stopped running at the end of 2025; Spotify has not unequivocally committed to never hosting similar government recruitment ads in the future, leaving a qualified “yes” about past support and a “no” about current ads as of early 2026 [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. What happened: Spotify carried ICE recruitment ads in 2025
Throughout 2025, Spotify carried audio recruitment ads for ICE that ran between songs on the free tier and offered signing bonuses, a campaign that drew sustained public backlash and demands for removal from artists, activists and elected officials after the platform verified the ads were airing [1] [2] [5].
2. Did Spotify “support” ICE by running those ads? Yes—financially and operationally, in practice
By accepting payment to run the recruitment spots as part of a broader U.S. government outreach campaign, Spotify enabled ICE’s recruitment messaging to reach its audience, which is the practical definition of commercial support for an advertiser; multiple outlets reported the ads ran as part of a larger federal recruitment push and Spotify initially defended the spots as compliant with its ad policy [5] [6] [7].
3. Are ICE ads still on Spotify right now? No—the ads were pulled when the government campaign ended
Spotify and several news outlets reported that the ICE recruitment ads are no longer running because the government campaign ended late in 2025; Variety, The Guardian, Pitchfork and others quote Spotify confirming the ad campaign concluded and that “there are currently no ICE ads running on Spotify” [2] [3] [7].
4. Is Spotify’s position unchanged despite the ads’ disappearance? The company declined to rule out future campaigns
Though the spots stopped because the government stopped buying them, reporting shows Spotify repeatedly declined to state it would refuse similar ads in future and framed the pause as the result of the campaign’s end rather than a policy change—critics argue the ads’ removal is financial, not ethical, and activist groups say Spotify has not made commitments to prohibit government recruitment or hate-based campaigns going forward [4] [8].
5. The controversies and competing narratives: public pressure versus platform ad policy
Artists, advocacy groups and the NYC Comptroller publicly pressured Spotify to stop running ICE ads, framing them as enabling state violence and demanding policy changes, while Spotify defended the ads as within its advertising rules and urged users to use ad feedback tools—coverage ranges from outraged activism (Indivisible, artists’ boycotts) to reporting that characterizes Spotify’s stance as a policy-compliance decision rather than an endorsement [8] [5] [6] [1].
6. Bottom line: clear past support, conditional present and uncertain future
Factually, Spotify did run and profit from ICE recruitment ads in 2025 (so in that sense it “supported” ICE at all), but as of early 2026 the specific ICE ads are no longer running because the government campaign ended; Spotify has not publicly adopted a ban on similar ads, meaning the company’s future actions remain conditional and subject to contract and policy decisions [1] [2] [4].