Spotify (SPOT) to suspend political ads for select services from next year

Music streaming platform Spotify (NYSE: SPOT) Friday said it would suspend political advertisements for certain services from next year, thereby contributing to the efforts to ensure a free and fair presidential election.

The move comes in response to an intense campaign launched by the authorities to prevent the spread of misinformation with the aim of influencing voters. According to reports, a Spotify spokesperson cited the lack of proper vetting tools as the reason behind the decision.

Starting next year, ad-supported services and exclusive podcasts will be free of content with political flavor. However, the curb will not be applicable to services that are non-exclusive, which will continue to carry such advertisements.

Related: Spotify stock rebounds on podcast strategy

At the end of the third quarter, the streamer had more than 140 million paid users for its ad-supported services. For the fourth quarter, the management expects the total number of monthly active users to be in the range of 255 million to 270 million and the number of premium subscribers to be 120-125 million.

Meanwhile, social media giant Facebook (FB) is yet to respond favorably to a call to regulate political advertisements and politically sensitive content on the site. On the other hand, Twitter (TWTR) took the harshest stance among all – to ban political advertisements entirely.

Google (GOOG) has chosen to take a balanced approach to the issue. The search giant will restrict advertisers from accessing functions that are useful to them, while allowing the advertisements themselves.

Also see: Spotify Technology Q3 2019 Earnings Conference

Spotify’s shares witnessed significant volatility ever since the company went public last year. The stock has gained 28% since the beginning of the year and 7% in the past six months.

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