Spotify have confirmed that a controversial ICE recruitment advertisement campaign on their platform has ended.
The streamer was widely criticised for running recruitment ads for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in late 2025 as part of President Donald Trump administration’s $30 billion investment in hiring at least 10,000 more deportation officers by the end of the year.
ICE is partially responsible for carrying out Trump’s policy for the mass detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants. There have been multiple reports of abuse and mistreatment of detainees in ICE facilities, including of pregnant women and children (via The Guardian). US Senator Jon Ossoff’s office have also published data showing “at least 510 instances” of physical and sexual abuse.
This led to calls to boycott the platform, amplified by the Spotify Unwrapped campaign which also criticised its proliferation of AI music.
Spotify removes 75 million tracks from platform in crackdown on AI
This will involve a new impersonation policy, following reports that AI-generated songs are being uploaded to dead musicians’ profiles, an updated spam filter and standardised AI disclosures in music credits.
An updated music spam filter, which will come into effect this autumn, will combat “mass uploads, duplicates, SEO hacks, artificially short track abuse, and other forms of slop have become easier to exploit as AI tools make it simpler for anyone to generate large volumes of music.”
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Additionally, the platform is introducing a new system to inform listeners of the role of AI in the songs they’re playing, so that artists who are “responsibly” using the technology have the opportunity to be transparent. This applies to vocals, songwriting, production, instrumentation, mixing, or mastering.
