Swedish music streaming company Spotify has joined tech firms like Twitter and Google and has announced the ban of political advertising on its platform.
“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. We will reassess this decision as we continue to evolve our capabilities,” the company reportedly said in a statement.
Spotify has 248 million users, including 113 million subscribers, across 79 markets. It reportedly said it would indefinitely suspend political ads because it can’t sufficiently vet them. This comes ahead of the 2020 US presidential elections with an aim to tackle the flow of misinformation.
Google in November announced new limits on political advertisers globally from micro-targeting users via election ads based on their political affiliation. Tech giants are facing scrutiny over political ads from the US regulators.
Twitter, on November 15, officially banned all kinds of political ads from its platform. However, Facebook, which is the mainstay of political advertising, is yet to announce new curbs on fake election ads. It recently allowed US President Donald Trump's campaign office to post a fake ad about Democrat presidential hopeful Joe Biden on its platform.
*Edited from an IANS report.