Spotify bans political ads in 2020 due to US elections
Streaming service Spotify will no longer air political ads this year because of the U.S. presidential election. The company justified this on Friday with concerns about the spread of misinformation.
Currently, the company is not able to verify and validate the content of political advertising. The sale of political ads will therefore be suspended at the beginning of 2020, it said.
The Swedish streaming service has many users in the USA. They often use the ad-financed free service.
Information on how much revenue Spotify generates from political advertising was not available. However, the industry medium Advertising Age reported that the Republican Party of U.S. President Donald Trump and Senator Bernie Sanders, who is running for the U.S. Democratic presidential nomination, among others, had placed ads with Spotify. The streaming service, which has 130 million users worldwide, is seen as a way to reach young voters.
Concern about disinformation grows
Ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November 2020, there is growing concern about disinformation campaigns and the spread of misinformation. Trump himself repeatedly spreads false or misleading information.
The major Internet companies have reacted to this in different ways. The short message service Twitter has largely banned political advertising. Online giant Google announced in November that it would not allow individualized voter advertising. Accordingly, targeted political advertising will only be possible on the basis of broader criteria such as age, gender or zip code.
Facebook, on the other hand, wants to continue to allow political ads. The online network argues that users and journalists should check ads for their truthfulness. (SDA)
