Spotify will pause all political advertising across its ad-supported tier and original podcasts in 2020. The company say they need put in place tighter vetting tools and systems before they can re-introduce political advertising.
The announcement comes amidst growing criticisms that online platforms lag behind other media outlets, often allowing misleading or malicious content to reach voters.
In early 2020, Spotify will suspend all political advertising, saying that they don’t currently have tight enough vetting tools in place.
“We do not yet have the necessary level of robustness in our processes, systems and tools to responsibly validate and review this content,” Spotify told Variety in a statement. “We will reassess this decision as we continue to evolve our capabilities.”
Earlier in the year, Facebook decided to exempt political ads from its accuracy standards, leading to widespread criticism. On the other hand, Twitter and Google have either banned paid political ads or pledged to prohibit false statements.
The new move from Spotify will only affect people in the US, as that’s the only country the company have sold political ad spaces to in the past.
It’ll be interesting to see how other online platforms move forward in 2020, with a US Presidential election looming.
