After A Year Of Fury, Spotify Confirms It’s Done Running ICE Recruitment Ads

Spotify US have confirmed they quietly stopped running I.C.E. recruitment ads at the end of 2025, following the conclusion of a federal advertising campaign – a move that only came to light after renewed outrage this week over the platform’s involvement with U.S. immigration enforcement messaging.

In a statement to Rolling Stone, a Spotify spokesperson said: “Yes, there are currently no ICE ads running on Spotify. The advertisements mentioned were part of a U.S. government recruitment campaign that ran across all major media and platforms. The campaign ended on most platforms and channels, including Spotify, at the end of last year.”

“There are currently no ICE ads running on Spotify.”

The timing of the confirmation comes just one day after an I.C.E. agent fatally shot a civilian woman and U.S. citizen in Minneapolis, an incident that has triggered mass outrage across the U.S.

Spotify stressed that the ad campaign ended weeks before the shooting. But still, the platform’s history with the ads is hard to forget.

Back in 2025, listeners began reporting I.C.E. recruitment messages popping up between their playlists – ads urging people to “join the mission to protect America” and “fulfil your mission” by signing up to work for I.C.E. Some were reportedly targeted at serving police officers, with messaging that framed immigration enforcement as being undermined by leadership ordering officers to “stand down while dangerous illegals walk free”.

Spotify initially defended the campaign, stating the ads were part of a broad U.S. government initiative and did not violate its advertising policies, while suggesting users could thumbs-up or thumbs-down the ads to “manage preferences.”

The backlash wasn’t just loud. Over the past year, artists including Saetia, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard and Massive Attack have pulled their music off the platform, with some citing the I.C.E. ads directly, alongside ongoing frustration about low royalty payouts and co-founder Daniel Ek’s investment in AI military drone tech firm Helsing. Ek later announced he would step down as CEO by the end of 2025, though he remains executive chairman.

According to industry sources cited by Rolling Stone, Spotify reportedly received around USD $74,000 from the Department of Homeland Security for running the ads.

The recruitment drive itself formed part of a wider push initiated under the Trump administration, which reportedly earmarked USD $30 billion to hire 10,000 additional deportation officers by the end of 2025. DHS spending figures released late last year showed millions poured into recruitment and “self-deportation” advertising across Meta, Google, YouTube and Spotify.

Now, with I.C.E. ads gone from Spotify’s platform – at least for the moment – the company is keen to frame the whole thing as simply the natural end of a government campaign.

But in a world where musicians are already struggling for crumbs from streaming royalties, being forced to fund, platform or sit alongside state propaganda was always going to hit a nerve.

And judging by how quickly this story reignited outrage, it’s pretty clear: even when Spotify switches the ads off, the bad taste isn’t disappearing from listeners’ mouths anytime soon.

Further Reading

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Have Officially Bailed From Spotify

AI Metalcore ‘Band’ Broken Avenue Busted Ripping Off Knocked Loose, Counterparts & More

Did Someone Just Pirate Spotify? Massive Library Scrape Sparks Alarm