Temporary Suspension Of Sales Of Political Ads On Spotify

Spotify. (Didi Kurniawan/VOI)

JAKARTA - Spotify Technology SA has made a statement that it will temporarily suspend sales of political advertising on its platform starting in early 2020. This music streaming service states that the temporary suspension will also be carried out on original Spotify users and exclusive podcasts.

"At this time, we do not have the capability to process, on systems or devices, to validate and review this content responsibly," a Spotify spokesman said as quoted by Reuters, Saturday, December 28.

He continued, the platform, which has nearly 141 million users as of October 2019, will review this decision in line with increasing capabilities.

Previously, Spotify only accepted political advertising in the United States. However, the company did not mention the amount of revenue it received from advertising in this segment.

The policy includes political groups such as candidates for certain political positions, those who have been elected and appointed, political parties, political action committees, and content that advocates for or against these parties.

Spotify also will not sell advertisements advocating for the results of legislative or judicial policies. However, this decision does not include advertisements that are included in content owned by third parties.

This step was taken by Spotify as the campaign heats up ahead of the US Presidential Election (Pilpres) next year. Various social media platforms have also received pressure to review policies related to political advertising.

Facebook and Google, for example, are under pressure to monitor and deal with the disinformation using their platforms and stop political advertising that is not false or does not live up to claims.