Spotify has stated that it will suspend political advertising ahead of the 2020 US presidential election, due to the difficulty of monitoring it.
“At this point in time, we do not yet have the necessary level of robustness in our process, systems and tools to responsibly validate and review this content,” the streaming platform tells Ad Age. “We will reassess this decision as we continue to evolve our capabilities.”
Political ads on Spotify (which are only allowed in the US) have been used by both sides of the aisle in the past. Both the Republican National Committee and Bernie Sanders have advertised on the platform, according to Ad Age. Its ad-supported tier is accessed by over 140 million users.
The move follows changes to Google’s political advertising policies, which limit the audience targeting of election ads. Twitter also announced, in late October, that it would ban all political advertising.
Spotify have previously taken steps to combat political division and misinformation by removing “hate content” such as the podcast of radio host and far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, following accusations of racism and antisemitism.