A hashtag campaign gone wrong: How the Guinness World Records drew the flack of thousands of EXO-L worldwide

Due to an error in a tweet they made, the official Guinness World Records Twitter account has been under heavy fire over the past day from angry EXO-Ls.

EXO-L is the name given to fans of the K-POP boy band EXO. Like fans of other forms of media, they have a reputation for being extremely dedicated to the band and are always on alert to protect them from any misunderstandings or mishaps that could occur within the range of their internet circle.

Most recently, they set their sights on the Guinness World Records Twitter account, trending hashtags in order to seek an apology from them for an error-filled tweet that they made.

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The incident: Why are EXO-Ls trending hashtags?

For the 14th Soompi Awards, K-POP fans were made to tweet under the hashtag #TwitterBestFandom and vote for a specific fandom for a chance to win an award for them.

The competition took place in a 24-hour period, with EXO-Ls (EXO fans) emerging as the victor with and ARMYs (BTS fans) coming in second place. In fact, EXO-Ls had managed to comprise of 40% of the total number of tweets made, which was 60,055,339.

The incident occurred when the official Guinness World Records Twitter account made this (now deleted) tweet:

This tweet, which was factually incorrect, was later deleted

EXO-Ls were quick to catch on to the error, demanding for an apology and a correction, under the hashtag #GWRApologisetoEXOLS.

The account eventually deleted the tweet and re-uploaded a corrected version. They also made a public apology for the inaccuracy of their original tweet.

Some fans, however, were not satisfied with the apology and did not hesitate to let the account know.

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Not the first time: A familiar sight for many

Back in 2016, EXO-Ls had raised concerns towards the South Korean music conglomerate MelOn after BTS' win for "Best Album of the Year" in their award show. Stating that there was a miscalculation for the winning criteria on MelOns' part, fans argued that EXO should have won the award - even contacting MelOns customer service demanding for an explanation.

Customer service shut it down saying they were not able to reveal the details as it was internal data, simply stating that BTS had scored higher.