Last Updated: May 2025
Policy Overview
PowerReviews is committed to collecting, displaying and sharing consumer-generated ratings, reviews, comments, photos, videos, questions and answers and other Content (“Content”), including from our clients that is authentic and fraud-free. The PowerReviews Moderation Policy (“Policy”) is designed to provide clarity around the way Content will be moderated to align with the PowerReviews Authenticity Policy. Compliance with this Policy will preserve the integrity of Content displayed by our clients on their websites, in apps, in-store and when syndicated across the PowerReviews Network.
Further, this Policy is designed to ensure the consumer’s ability to share honest opinions about a business’s products, services, or conduct, in any forum, including social media.
Moderation is the process of evaluating and taking action on Content submitted from consumers. All Content submitted through a client site is moderated through three distinct processes: 1) through submission via the profanity filter; 2) through the PowerReviews moderation processes, which may include machine learning or artificial intelligence to perform review and moderation activities, and/or human verification; and 3) through a client’s own internal moderation processes (as applicable). If the Content submitted to the client’s site does not violate the PowerReviews Moderation Policy, the Content is “Published” according to the standard Publication Rules.
This Policy applies to all Content submitted to the PowerReviews platform ("Platform") including Content submitted via review collection forms; third-party Content; Content collected via alternative media (such as paper); and provides guidance for what Content will be published to client site(s). All PowerReviews clients are required to ensure their Content complies with these Moderation Guidelines and the PowerReviews Authenticity Policy.
Moderation Process
Moderation is the process of evaluating and taking action on content submitted from consumers. All content submitted through a client's website is moderated through three points:
1. Screening via the profanity filter (at the time of review submission)
2. PowerReviews moderation (once the review has been submitted)
3. A client's own internal moderation processes (as applicable)
Observations and Publication Rules
As a client's content flows through to PowerReviews, our moderators will review each piece of content and assign Observations as applicable. Observations guide moderation decisions in determining if the content is moved to a Published or Unpublished state, which dictates whether or not that content will be displayed on the client's website(s) and/or syndicated to the PowerReviews Open Network.
Any content that does not violate the Policy and/or the PowerReviews Authenticity Policy is Published. Any content that violates the Policy and/or the PowerReviews Authenticity Policy is not Published.
Observations
Observations are attributes (e.g. competitor, pricing, relevancy) applied to a review, image, video, question or answer classifying the nature of the Content. A piece of Content can be tagged with multiple Observations or none at all.
Observations dictate if Content is published, and provide an easy way for clients to understand consumer feedback. Observations will be organized within channels, which are pre-filtered views of Content meeting certain conditions. Channels make it easy to monitor and act on certain types of Content, like safety alerts or escalated reviews.
Clients should use Observations through the Client Moderation Tool solely for the purpose of adding a new Observation(s) that was missed by the PowerReviews Moderation processes.
Publication Rules
All Content (e.g., ratings, reviews, images, videos, questions and answers) will be moderated and moved to a “Published” or “Unpublished” state which dictates whether or not that Content will be displayed on the client’s site(s) and/or syndicated to the PowerReviews Network.
As the client’s Content flows through, PowerReviews moderation processes notate Content with “Observations.” Observations will guide decisions to determine if the Content shall be Published through a set of “Publication Rules.” This ensures Content that violates the PowerReviews Authenticity Policy and/or PowerReviews Moderation Policy is not published on the client’s site.
Published and Unpublished Content
The terms “Published” and “Unpublished” refer to the status of a piece of Content that determines whether or not it is actively displayed on a site and/or published to the PowerReviews Network. Publication Rules will dictate whether or not Content will be Published or Unpublished based on Observation(s).
Clients have the ability to change the status of a piece of Content to Published or Unpublished using Publication Override, regardless of the Observation(s) made by PowerReviews moderators. A client changing the Content status from Published to Unpublished will only impact the Content that is displayed on their site.
PowerReviews regularly monitors client usage of the Publication Override feature and if a client is using this feature in violation of the Authenticity or Moderation Policies, it may result in the client being removed from the Platform and/or termination of contract.
PowerReviews does not alter Content in any way, nor do we enable our clients to alter submitted Content. Based on the guidelines outlined in the Authenticity Policy, any piece of Content that is Published appears as it was originally written, including grammatical errors.
Content will remain Published to the PowerReviews Network, unless the PowerReviews Moderation team adds an Observation that is dictated by a Publication Rule that moves the Content to an Unpublished status.
Moderation Glossary
The following list describes each Observation and corresponding Publication Rule to determine whether the Content will be published based on the standard PowerReviews Moderation Policy. Clients can also make Observations on site Content, once a PowerReviews moderator has reviewed the Content.
Quick reference for standard Publication Rules:
| Observation | Observation Code | Published | Unpublished |
| Safety Alert | SA | ✓ | |
| Safety Concern | SC | ✓ | |
| CS Alert | CS | ✓ | |
| Legal | LC | ✓ | |
| Web | WEB | ✓ | |
| Price | PR | ✓ | |
| Profane | PIM | ✓ | |
| PII | PII | ✓ | |
| URL | URL | ✓ | |
| Irrelevant | NR | ✓ | |
| Retail/Comp | CR | ✓ | |
| Contradict | CC | ✓ | |
| Foreign Language | FL | ✓ | |
| Underage | US | ✓ | |
| Duplicate | DC | ✓ | |
| Copyright | CV | ✓ | |
| Fraud | FRO | ✓ | |
| Test | TST | ✓ | |
| Client Escalated | CES | ✓ | |
| Shipping & Fulfillment** | US Only | Non-Us Locales | |
| Customer Service** | US Only | Non-Us Locales |
** Some default publication statuses differ by region due to local legislation.
Safety Alert - This observation will result in Content NOT being published.
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Evidence of Violence to Children, Child Pornography, Serious Injury to or Death of a Child, Death of an Adult: If a submitted piece of Content suggests or contains evidence of violence to a child, child pornography, serious injury to/death of a child or death of an adult, the Safety Alert observation will be applied. This includes speculation that a product is poisonous/causes cancer/causes death, etc.
Safety Concern - This observation will result in Content being published.
- Potential Danger: If the Content references something about the product or its use that is potentially unsafe (with no significant harm actually having occurred), the Safety Concern observation will be applied.
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Medical Advice: If Content contains statements that can be construed as soliciting or providing medical advice (i.e., the type a medical doctor or physician might provide), the Safety Concern observation will be applied.
CS Alert (Customer Service Alert) - This observation will result in Content NOT being published.
- If Content contains an actionable request about an order and the customer included contact information in their review, the CS Alert observation will be applied.
Legal - This observation will result in Content being published.
- If Content contains a call for legal action (lawsuit, suing, sue, etc.) against the retailer or brand, the Legal observation will be applied. This includes threats of reporting the brand or client to the Better Business Bureau (BBB).
Web - This observation will result in Content being published.
- If the reviewer mentions an error found on the client’s product listing or website vs. what they actually received in their order, the Web observation will be applied.
Price - This observation will result in Content NOT being published.
- If Content has a definitive price of the reviewed product, charged either by the listed retailer or another retailer, the Price observation will be applied.
Profane - This observation will result in Content NOT being published.
- If Content contains offensive, profane, illicit or otherwise inappropriate comments, the Profane observation will be applied.
PII (Personally Identifiable Information) - This observation will result in Content NOT being published.
- If Content contains personally identifiable information (including in the headline/nickname/location fields), the PII observation will be applied. Ex: full first and last name, street address + city, state or zip code, email address, phone number.
URL - This observation will result in Content NOT being published.
- If Content contains websites, hyperlinks, URLs, etc. that do NOT belong to the listed retailer’s site, the URL observation will be applied.
Irrelevant - This observation will result in Content NOT being published.
- Irrelevant to Product: If the reviewer does not state or discuss the product, the Irrelevant observation will be applied. Ex: If the content contains gibberish, random characters, nonsensical words/phrases, “no comment,” does not leave a comment or the reviewer mentions the incorrect product.
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Guessing/Hearsay: If the reviewer has yet to make a purchase or the reviewer has no experience with the specific product or retailer the Irrelevant observation will be applied.
Retail/Comp (Retail/Competitor Discrepancy) - This observation will result in Content NOT being published.
- If Content states the name of a store/retailer that does not match the store/retailer listed, the Retail/Comp observation will be applied.
- This Observation does not apply In cases where a reviewer compares a product to another product or to another brand. (e.g., a review on a Bissell vacuum can contain a comparison to Dyson.)
Contradict - This observation will result in Content NOT being published.
- Contradicting Tags: If a review contains tags that are clearly negative in the "pros" or clearly positive in the "cons" the Contradict observation will be applied.
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Stars: If the star rating is a 1 or 5 and obviously does not correspond with the sentiment expressed in the review, the Contradict observation will be applied (e.g., the reviewer is praising the product in their text response but rated the product with 1 star).
Foreign Language - This observation will result in Content NOT being published.
- If a review’s language does not match the “expected language” for the locale, the Foreign Language observation will be applied.
Underage - This observation will result in Content NOT being published.
- Any Content where the creator of the Content states or implies that they are under the age of 13, or Content associated with the consumption of alcohol or cannabis and suggests that parties involved are under the age of 21 will have the Underage observation applied.
Duplicate - This observation will result in Content NOT being published.
- If the Content already exists as a review, the Duplicate observation will be applied.
Copyright - This observation will result in Content NOT being published.
- If it appears that a review has been copy/pasted from another source online, the Copyright observation will be applied.
Fraud - This observation will result in Content NOT being published.
- If Content is in violation of the PowerReviews Authenticity Policy, the Fraud observation will be applied.
Test - This observation will result in Content NOT being published.
- If a review appears to have been submitted as a test, the Test observation will be applied.
Client Escalated - This observation will result in Content NOT being published and the application of this observation will result in the review populating into the Client Escalated channel where it will remain unpublished until it is moderated by the client.
There are two reasons a review would have the client escalated observation applied to it:
- If review contains a term on the client's Escalated Words List the Client Escalated observation will automatically be applied to the review
- If PowerReviews is unable to collect device data, which is used to detect fraudulent reviews, the Client Escalated observation can be automatically applied to the review (this setting can be adjusted and for more information contact your Customer Success Manager)
Shipping & Fulfillment - This observation will result in Content being published.
- If the content primarily focuses on shipping, delivery and product fulfillment experience, the Shipping & Fulfillment observation will be applied.
Service - This observation will result in Content being published.
- If the content primarily focuses on an experience or interaction with customer service (positive or negative), the Service observation will be applied.
Social and Image Moderation
We moderate all social Content using the following guidelines for image relevance and authenticity. Any piece of social Content not meeting these requirements will be unpublished and therefore not displayed on the clients’ site.
Retail/Comp:
- If the image or video contains a mention of a competitive retailer you should use this observation.
Copyright:
- If the image/video does not appear to have been created by the submitter of the review (ex. Stock images, it was copied from Google Images, etc.).
Duplicate:
- If there are duplicate images or videos.
Irrelevant:
- If the image is not relevant or related to the product.
- If the image is only showcasing issues or damage caused by the shipping process.
- If a video is over 5 minutes long.
- If an image/video is too blurry to be able to understand.
PII:
- If the image/video contains Personally Identifiable Information (ex. business cards or other promotional/marketing materials that has a person/businesses contact information).
Profane:
- If the image/video contains nudity/pornography.
- If the image/video showcases illegal activities.
- If the image/video is generally offensive or profane in any way.
- If the image/video contains violent behavior.
- If the image/video shows the reviewer in underwear or lingerie and their face is included (if their face is NOT included, we can approve the image assuming it’s not otherwise inappropriate).
Compliance with the Policy
PowerReviews works closely with its clients to make sure that the guidelines outlined in this Policy are followed with regard to collecting, displaying and sharing user-generated Content to client site(s) and/or the PowerReviews Network. Failure to comply with the Policy may lead to a client being removed from the Platform and/or termination of contract.
Changes to the Policy
PowerReviews may, in its sole discretion, update the Moderation Policy from time-to-time as it deems necessary to further the purpose of the Policy.