Ipsoot FAQ

This FAQ page for Ipsoot will contain questions that have been asked and responded by the Partner
Team, as well as frequent questions from Raters.

This will be updated as we receive information that will be helfpul for consultants. The newest
information will be at the bottom of the FAQ, while the older will be the top.

FAQ 5.29.2020

Question: The guidelines tell us: “Both current office holders and candidates should be marked as
‘political’ when they are mentioned, regardless of context.”
Would any mentioned of a politician be considered Politics according to this?

Answer: Correct, any mention of a politician would be considered as “Politics” as we want to cast a wide
net on this topic despite the job’s context.

Question: “*Elections are local elections or above in cities with populations above 5k (e.g. election for
city mayor, exclude city council/ school board elections)”
Excluding cities under 5K inhabitants is problematic: first, it implies extra side searches, second,
depending on each country’s administrative system, it could actually exclude most cities.
Suggesting getting rid of this element altogether, as municipal elections in small towns are not less
political than in bigger ones.

Answer: Client Feedback: Concurred – let’s remove.

Question: As per the guidelines:

Local government officials above city level (which includes city mayor, excludes school board, city
council etc.)

What about military official would these be considered Politicians?

It can be confusing sometimes to determine who is a politician or not from this definition as it only
applies to local/civic government officials
Answer: Any active member of the military should be considered “political” content, they are not
Politicians unless otherwise stated when researched.

Question:The below should not be marked as ‘politics’:

Individual law enforcement stories (e.g. ‘a police arrested a criminal’, or an individual officer or member
of the army when not on duty)”
Would this addition (in bold) imply that any member of the army on duty could be marked political? A
police officer investigating a case is on duty as well, but it’s excluded. It’s not entirely clear.

Answer: This was included for clarification purposes – if it works best, we are fine with the current
standing guidance on police + military if this clarification will draw too much confusion.

Question:The below should not be marked as ‘politics’

High school or college student body government
We are assuming this applies to all types of similar bodies, like primary schools, and other entities that
are not directly political. Is this correct?

Answer: Correct, this guideline specifically pertains to any student run government body.

Question: When labeling for text posts with 3 or less sentences:

The post needs to explicitly reference or ties to the social issue topic. The goal here is to distinguish
between personal hate speech/ individual complain/ observation post and posts that refer to broader
social issues.
This distinction on the length of the post is not entirely clear. Can you please provide some examples or
more clarification about this part?

Answer: The length for text posts that are 3 sentences or less typically refers to jobs that have very little
context for social issues. A singular racist statement or slur. An isolated observation post that has no ties
to the broader issue. Similarly, an individual complaint that has no ties to the larger social issue. As long
as the post fulfills the requirements stated below for what is considered a social issue then it should be
marked as “social issues,” given enough context is provided.
Question:
1. (The topic) Concerns/ concerned the welfare or rights of groups of people
(or animals) AND
2. Celebrates, Defends or Challenges existing social norms/ rules, these social norms may be
different across countries OR

3. There is a division in opinion among groups/ is controversial

a. Group: A group is at least a size of a town or village
b. Social Norms: A social norm is the accepted behavior that an individual is expected to
conform to in a particular group, community, or culture.
The parts on social norms, though we understand the intent, is rather blurry and could be interpreted
very differently by raters from different markets. Can you please provide more clarification/examples
here about what can be considered Social norms?

Answer: Social norms can vary greatly between markets so there is room for variability. For instance, a
social norm in the United States could be that men use the men’s restroom and women use the
women’s restroom. This becomes a social issue when challenged: Women entering the men’s restroom
break this rule and opens room for discussion as there are many groups who celebrate, defend, or
challenge this norm.

Question:

The guidelines tell us: Occasionally, jobs will feature words, letters and/or phrases from languages
outside of your queue's target language. Please review all job components (ex. caption, image, URL,
video, etc), as instructed above, and comprehend the overall message or story of the job. If the post is in
a language you do not understand → Click 'Skip : Other Language’

Does this imply we should rate the post when the foreign content is minimal? When it’s only a small
amount of the post?

Additionally, should we suggest rating a post that has foreign content (even a good portion) as long as
we have enough content in the market language to assess it is about SI and Politics already? Since the
additional content in a foreign language wouldn’t change the rating.

Answer:As long as the foreign language present in the job is minimal and the rater understands a
majority of the content provided then the rater can rate the job as we normally would otherwise please
click “Skip: Other Language.

Question: The Guidelines does not include a definition of the Commercial Intent attribute or No Topic
like previous Guidelines copies.
On that note of Commercial Intent, our approach in relation to COVID-19 label is that if posts selling
something related to the virus (face masks, hand sanitizers or PPE against the virus) would get
Coronavirus + Social Issues + Health & Medical + Commercial Intent. Is that the correct approach?
Answer: We can use the previous definition of Commercial Intent. The attribute the approach suggested
above is correct.
Commercial Intent
Content in which the primary purpose is the author explicitly selling something.
Includes
Links to things for purchase
Promoting an offline business (e.g. come down to Bob's discount warehouse)
Discounts or deals (for online or offline purchase)
Giveaways & promotions
Excludes
Tutorial or beauty blog with links to products used
Requests to follow a Facebook / Instagram account
“Brand Awareness” campaigns that aren't selling a particular product