Our community policy

We are striving to bring about a more green and peaceful world and a really important tool which helps us to do that is simple, open and honest communication.

We believe everyone deserves a chance to express their opinion in the hope that we can find common ground. We search for a way to compromise that lets us all move forwards together towards a brighter future.

This is why the comments sections of our stories are such an important safe space where all of us, even those who don’t share our vision, can have a conversation and exchange ideas with one another.

We welcome debate and discussion as we believe that is often where the best ideas come from. We love to see people passionately standing up for what they believe in and having the opportunity to listen to new ideas or new ways of looking at a problem. However we firmly believe that these conversations must be both honest and respectful if they are to be productive.

So we are asking everyone who wishes to contribute to the conversations happening on this website, and that includes all of those posting on behalf of Greenpeace, to follow these simple rules:

• Tell the truth
• Be honest about who you are and why you are here. If you represent corporate or government interest, if you are being paid for the views you are expressing or have a conflict of interest, you are welcome to contribute to the conversation. However, please let everyone know that is the case, so they have the context behind what you are saying.
• Be civil and respectful in what you say. If you would not want it said to you do not say it to someone else. That means no discriminatory comments, no personal attacks, no foul language, no defamatory statements and no incitement to violence.
• Give everyone the chance to participate – we may remove posts if you unnecessarily make multiple posts one after another so don’t hog the conversation.
• Stay focused on the topic being discussed as this helps all of the other people who want to be involved in this conversation.
• Talk don’t sell, this is a space to debate important issues so please refrain commercial activity or mass promotion as we have a zero tolerance policy for spam.

If you follow these rules then we will not ban you or delete your comments simply because we disagree with what you are saying.

We believe that free speech and the open exchange of ideas is incredibly important, so we actively work to defend it. That means if we identify that you are simply here as a troll or are misrepresenting yourself, we will take steps in order to protect the spirit of this community. These steps may include deleting your comments, editing your comment to remove promotional content, closing threads or even banning accounts. We may also turn off commenting for specific posts, or site wide, should we believe there is a concerted attack being made.

We encourage any community members who believe someone has acted in the way we have just described to report such activity to our Website Administrator.

We try to ensure that everything on our website is accurate and consistent with our views and values. However, the content and the comments left by community members are written by ordinary people just like you and me. We hope you will understand that they do not necessarily represent the views of Greenpeace International or any Greenpeace national/regional organisation. For third party content, we therefore shall not be responsible or liable for the accuracy or reliability of any statement made on the website by anyone apart from us and our authorised Greenpeace International staff acting in such capacity. If you are looking for the official word from Greenpeace International, please see our press releases, publications and issue pages or contact our Press Desk.