ICE’s push to hire 10,000 more guys who peaked in high school and still owe last month’s rent to their moms — or as the popular euphemism would have it, “deportation officials” — includes millions of advertising dollars spent on streaming platforms such as YouTube, Meta‘s Facebook and Instagram, HBO Max, Hulu, and Spotify. A new report from Rolling Stone breaks down how much money is going where, along with a more comprehensive look at some of the, uh, interesting tactics being employed by the Department of Homeland Security.
DHS and ICE have spent $2.8 million across Meta’s two biggest platforms, Facebook and Instagram. These commercials mostly tell listeners “to fulfill your mission,” the mission being, apparently, tear-gassing a kids’ Halloween parade route or denying medications to detainees until they die. An additional $3 million went to Spanish-language ads across Google and YouTube that essentially threaten listeners, all in an effort to encourage “self-deportation.”
Somewhat surprisingly, DHS spent only $74,000 advertising on Spotify. Given that some Spotify users are organizing boycotts over these ads, it’s worth making a couple of points. First, commercials on Spotify are dirt cheap and not a significant revenue source for the Big Green Circle. They mostly exist to annoy you into buying a paid plan. And second, the internet is not real life, and in all likelihood, very few people have canceled their Spotify accounts.
Spotify isn’t raking in millions off DHS — in fact, their ICE income is closer to a rounding error on their books. This isn’t Cracker Barrel rebranding and then un-rebranding after a massive backlash, and if you were the betting type, you’d probably bet that Spotify has lost less than $74,000 in cancelation revenue. That might be disappointing to some readers, but in retrospect, it’s easy to spot a flaw in the plan: The boycotts are organized around ads that paid customers never hear.
ICE continues to offer a $50,000 signing bonus for new recruits. Adjusted for inflation, Judas probably got around $10,000 for selling out Jesus. So, on the plus side, $50,000 is actually a pretty good price for your soul, historically speaking.
