Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’” was featured in New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s final advertisement before his election night victory — however, the campaign spot has now been removed from X due to a licensing rejection from Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG).

The ad, shared by Mamdani’s various social media accounts just before polls closed on Tuesday (Nov. 4), included the caption “New York is a-changin’” alongside a montage of scenes from the 34-year-old progressive’s campaign set to Dylan’s iconic protest song. Mamdani was declared the winner of the race Tuesday night, defeating former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

However, as first reported by the New York Times, the ad has since been removed from X and replaced with a notice stating, “This media has been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner.” The video remains available on Instagram and TikTok.

It is unclear who requested the removal of the video from the social media platform, but a source familiar with the situation informed Billboard that UMPG, which has owned Dylan’s publishing catalog since 2020, previously denied Mamdani’s campaign’s request to license the song.

On Wednesday (Nov. 5), a spokesperson for UMPG commented, “As a longstanding policy, we do not license Bob Dylan compositions for projects involving political figures.”

The Mamdani campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A representative for Sony Music, which owns Dylan’s master recordings, declined to comment. Representatives from Instagram owner Meta and TikTok did not immediately answer questions regarding whether the platforms also received takedown notices for the ad.

While individual social media users can freely soundtrack their videos with songs covered by blanket licenses, advertisements must obtain clearance from copyright owners through what is known as a sync license.

Failing to secure a sync license for political videos can lead to potential legal liabilities, as Billboard recently reported following President Donald Trump’s administration posting TikTok videos featuring Taylor Swift’s No. 1 single “The Fate of Ophelia” and Zach Bryan’s track “Revival.”