• Spotify will refrain from selling ads which are more likely to have legislative or judicial outcomes.
• The company will not control political ads embedded in for third-party podcasts.

The world’s largest music streaming service Spotify is deferring the sale of political ads on its platform early next year. The decision comes in the wake of aggressive campaigning for the U.S. presidential election in November 2020.

Spotify, which has around 141 million users embracing its ad-supported platform in October, takes the cue from Google and Twitter in banning the political ads. While Twitter prohibited political ads in October, Google has allegedly taken a nuanced step. Google has made it harder to micro-target audience based on political affiliation via YouTube and Google search. Meanwhile, Facebook has drawn flak for showing inaptness in fact-checking ads placed by candidates.

The company said in a statement that they lacked ‘level of robustness in the systems, processes and tools’ to police the content. A Republican digital strategist was quoted saying Spotify wasn’t the preferred choice for political campaigns up until recently. With other platforms placing a kibosh on political ads, advertisers were in a quest for a new alternative, the Republican added.

Reports indicate Spotify will refrain from selling ads which are more likely to have legislative or judicial outcomes. Apparently, political groups including candidates for office, appointed and elected officials, political action committees (PACs), political parties, SuperPACS and contents which are for or against those entities will come under the new policy. As it pans out, ads will be barred from weighing in on legislation, proposed laws or voter referendums.

It is worth noting that the suspension on ads is only applicable to ad sales of Spotify, keeping advertisements embedded in third-party content at bay. Meanwhile, those contents will still come under the ambit of broader content policies of Spotify. For the record, Spotify does not run political advertisements outside the U.S.
 

Source credit:

https://in.reuters.com/article/us-spotify-political-ads/spotify-to-suspend-political-advertising-in-2020-idINKBN1YV1GI