def METHOD_NAME(text):
  """Converts `text` to Unicode (if it's not already), assuming utf-8 input."""
  if six.PY3:
    if isinstance(text, str):
      return text
    elif isinstance(text, bytes):
      return text.decode("utf-8", "ignore")
    else:
      raise ValueError("Unsupported string type: %s" % (type(text)))
  elif six.PY2:
    if isinstance(text, str):
      return text.decode("utf-8", "ignore")
    elif isinstance(text, unicode):
      return text
    else:
      raise ValueError("Unsupported string type: %s" % (type(text)))
  else:
    raise ValueError("Not running on Python2 or Python 3?")