(Reuters) - Spotify Technology SA said on Friday it would pause selling political advertisements on its music streaming platform in early 2020.
The world?s most popular paid music streaming service, with nearly 141 million users tuning into its ad-supported platform in October, said the pause would extend to Spotify original and exclusive podcasts as well.
The move, which was first reported by Ad Age, comes as campaigns for the U.S. presidential election in November 2020 heat up.
Online platforms including Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc?s Google are under growing pressure to police misinformation on their platforms and stop carrying political ads that contain false or misleading claims. Twitter Inc banned political ads in October and, last month, Google said it would stop giving advertisers the ability to target election ads using data such as public voter records and general political affiliations.
?At this point in time, we do not yet have the necessary level of robustness in our processes, systems and tools to responsibly validate and review this content,? a Spotify spokeswoman said in a statement to Reuters.
?We will reassess this decision as we continue to evolve our capabilities.?
