Native Organizers Alliance - These ICE ads have no place on Spotify

 

Patricia, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is paying Spotify, the music streaming app, to run recruitment ads that glorify masked agents that have used excessive force, violently assaulted demonstrators, abducted people into unmarked vans, and then disappeared them for days or weeks at a time. Spreading fear and violence throughout entire cities, these raids and street-level snatch operations often cause injury and raise the fear factor, making children miss daycare or school and parents miss work or even avoid seeking healthcare when sick. Here’s an example of the extreme rhetoric used in these ads: “In too many cities, dangerous illegals walk free as police are forced to stand down. Join ICE and help us catch the worst of the worst, with bonuses up to $50,000 and generous benefits.” This is not harmless recruitment language -- it’s dehumanizing propaganda that calls on music listeners to enlist in an agency with a record of human rights violations. Day laborers looking for work outside a Home Depot are not the “worst of the worst.” Parents abducted while picking up their children at school are not dangerous illegals. ICE has raided churches, staked out sporting events, and even arrested childcare workers in front of children. ICE practices racial profiling, unconstitutional arrests, abusive treatment, and unnecessary brutality that has been documented time and time again in bystanders’ videos. And Spotify is profiting from ads recruiting more agents in order for the U.S. government to expand this intimidation. Send a direct message to CEO Daniel Ek demanding Spotify drop ICE recruitment ads and stop helping the Trump administration’s hate-fueled recruitment now! SIGN and SEND When Spotify amplifies this kind of messaging, it is effectively endorsing the same violent tactics that communities have been pressing the government to stop. Spotify tries to defend its decision by calling the ads “policy compliant,” but this “policy” is no excuse for promoting discrimination, fear, and state violence. No platform built on artistic expression and global community should spread recruitment propaganda filled with institutionalized hatred. We need to see a “policy” that clearly excludes any agencies, public or private, from recruiting for operations that intimidate, target, or harm our communities. ICE’s ads unquestionably cross that line. Tribal leaders have joined artists, listeners, and other local leaders in speaking out as the backlash against Spotify’s decision to run these ads continues to grow. Spotify must remove these ads immediately, publicly apologize, and revamp its advertising policies to prevent subjecting their customers to hateful, dehumanizing, or violence-glorifying content in the future. Tell Spotify to drop ICE ads from their platform now! Hawwih (thank you) for calling on Spotify to do the right thing. Judith LeBlanc (Caddo) Executive Director BUILD NATIVE POLITICAL POWER

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