Last Updated: August 31, 2017
Policy Overview
PowerReviews is committed to collecting, displaying and sharing user-generated content ('content') 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 Open Network.
Further, this Policy is designed to ensure content collection and display practices are in compliance with the Consumer Review Fairness Act of 2016, which protects the consumer's ability to share honest opinions about a business's products, services, or conduct, in any forum, including social media.
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 website(s).
All clients must comply with the PowerReviews Moderation Policy and PowerReviews Authenticity Policy unless they have received written agreement from PowerReviews for an exception. Failure to comply with the Policy may lead to a client being removed from the Platform and/or termination of contract.
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 Observations guide moderation decisions in determining if the content is moved to a Published or Unpublished state, which dictates whether or not that content will be displayed on the client's website(s) and/or syndicated to the PowerReviews Open Network.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 tags (e.g., Fraud, Irrelevant, Safety Concern) that moderators apply to reviews, images, videos, questions, and/or answers that help classify the nature of the content. A piece of content can be tagged with one or multiple Observations, or none at all.
Observations dictate if content is publishable or not under PowerReviews' Publication Rules, 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 moderation tool solely for the purpose of adding a new Observation(s) that was missed during the PowerReviews moderation processes. See Moderation Glossary below for more information.
Publication Rules
The terms Published and Unpublished refer to the two statuses a piece of content can have under PowerReviews' Publication Rules. The status is determined by any aforementioned Observations applied, and dictates whether or not the content will be displayed on the client's website(s) and/or syndicated to the PowerReviews Open Network.
Clients have the ability to change the status of a piece of content using the Publication Override feature, 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 own website(s); the content will remain Published to the PowerReviews Open Network, unless the PowerReviews moderators add an Observation that is dictated by a Publication Rule that moves the content to an Unpublished status.
PowerReviews regularly monitors client usage of the Publication Override feature. If a client is using this feature in violation of the Policy or the PowerReviews Authenticity Policy, 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 PowerReviews Authenticity Policy, any piece of content that is Published appears as it was originally written, including grammatical errors.
Moderation Glossary
The following table describes each Observation and its corresponding Publication Rule status that the PowerReviews moderators adhere to. Further explanation of each Observation can also be found below.
| Moderation Observation Applied | Moderation Observation Code | Published Status | Unpublished Status |
| 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 | ✓ |
Safety Alert - This Observation will result in content NOT being published.
- 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.
- Medical Advice: If content contains statements that can be construed as soliciting or providing medical advice (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.
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 website, 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.
- 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.
- Stars: If the star rating is a 1 or 5 and clearly 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.
- If a reviewer states or implies that they are under the age of 13, the Underage Observation will be 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 copied/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. This Observation is automatic and will result in the review populating in the Client Escalated channel where it will remain Unpublished until it is moderated by the client.
- If a review contains a term on the client's Escalated Words List, the Client Escalated Observation will be automatically applied.
- If PowerReviews is unable to collect device data, which is used to detect fraudulent reviews, the Client Escalated Observation will be automatically applied (this setting can be adjusted - contact your Customer Success Manager for more information).
Social and Image Moderation
PowerReviews moderates 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 will not display on the client's website(s).
Retail/Comp:
- If the image or video contains a mention of a competitive retailer.
Copyright:
- If the image/video does not appear to have been created by the submitter of the review (e.g., stock images, 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 (e.g., business cards or other promotional/marketing material that has personal/business 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 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 website(s) and/or the PowerReviews Open 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.