Greenpeace Sets Guinness World Record in Facebook 'Unfriend Coal' Campaign

by Zachary Shahan · 2011-04-13 11:15:00 UTC
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As I quickly mentioned last week when covering the continued pressure Greenpeace is putting on Facebook to "unfriend coal," Greenpeace recently came up with a plan to go after a Facebook World Record today. Early this morning, it started gathering comments on a post on the "Unfriend Coal" Facebook page with the intention of setting the record for most comments on a Facebook post within 24 hours. Guinness World Records told Greenpeace that it needed to hit at least 50,000 comments to set the record.

I was going to write this post encouraging you all to join in the effort, and it would still be great if you did, but the record has actually already been set!

In just 32 minutes in the early morning, 1,500 comments were already made. And as I'm writing this, there are 55,210 comments on the post. Greenpeace has increased its target in response to the tremendous response and is now aiming to hit 100,000 comments. Help out by adding yours now.

This seems like a pretty significant action to me. Facebook users are making it clear to the company that this is an important issue to them. They are creaming a Facebook World Record, aiming to more than double the previous record. Is Facebook listening? Hopefully.

Greenpeace, the great activist organization it is, is not just keeping the action on the internet, though. It is showing these comments on a large, scrolling screen in front of Facebook's headquarters in California. How can Facebook ignore that?

Here are some commenting tips and clarifications from Greenpeace:

  • You have to 'like' www.facebook.com/unfriendcoal to comment.

  • You can comment multiple times - each comment counts!

  • “@nametag” ten friends in the comment so they can join in the record too.

  • Share the link on your own profile.

  • Stay on topic - Facebook and renewable energy. Send your message to Facebook staff. Ask questions. Give opinions. Spark debate. Tell your story!

And, by the way, Greenpeace is giving some record-setting memorabilia to the top 50 commenters -- each will receive a 'Facebook Unfriend Coal' t-shirt. The top 50 commenters will be chosen by "the number of comments they make, the number of friends they tag, and the quality of the comments," Greenpeace writes.

Of course, the action of the day is leaving a comment or more. But if you haven't signed the petition on our site to Facebook telling it to unfriend coal, don't forget to do that, too.

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Image Credit: Greenpeace

Zachary Shahan has studied society and the environment for years, writes on these issues for a number of blogs, and is now the editor of planetsave.com, ecolocalizer.com, and cleantechnica.com.

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