World Politics4 min(s) read
Greta Thunberg explains why she laughed at fellow climate protesters in viral video that sparked backlash
Greta Thunberg has defended her reaction to a climate protest organized by the movement she founded after a clip of her laughing during an interview sparked backlash online.
The 23-year-old Swedish activist was seen bursting into laughter after learning that a Fridays for Future demonstration was taking place in Berlin, Germany.
The moment appeared in the newly released documentary On Tanks Into The Climate Crisis - How Activism Is Criminalised, in which Thunberg discussed her growing approach to climate activism.
Fridays For Future is a movement launched in 2018 by the then-15-year-old after she began skipping school on Fridays to demand climate action.
Her solitary protest outside the Swedish parliament quickly grew into a global movement, inspiring millions of students to organize demonstrations worldwide.
Thunberg bursts into laughter over climate demonstration
In the viral video, German interviewer Hubertus Koch told her: "I just thought when I came here it's kind of symbolic that on a day where there's a Friday for Future demonstration in Berlin."
Thunberg then interrupted to ask, "Is it?" before chuckling. She added: "Really? They still do that?"
She burst into laughter once again before calling for the camera to "cut".
Thunberg explains why she found the protest amusing
The young activist addressed the controversy in an Instagram statement on Friday, arguing that her reaction had been stripped of important political context.
She doubled down on her stance, slamming climate protesters for distancing themselves from her increasingly vocal pro-Palestinian activism.
"There is a video widely circulating around of me laughing while hearing about a Fridays for future protest in Germany in connection to an interview," she said.
"For context, this was the same days as we were blocking a weapons manufacturer there, and just found out there simultaneously was a police permitted climate demonstration in a famously white middleclass area by the very same German climate movement who cancelled and 'distanced themselves' from me for saying that Palestinians are humans too and that when we call for justice, Palestinians have to be included in those calls too."
Thunberg accused parts of Germany's climate movement of failing to confront what she called the country's complicity in the devastation in Gaza.
"Make no mistake; the world IS ridiculing Germany for being detached from reality and being stuck in extremely racist mindsets and tactics while being shamelessly complicit in genocide, ecocide and climate crisis - a conversation many people of colour in Germany have been highlighting since forever," she added.
Filmmaker says viral clip was taken out of context
Koch also defended Thunberg, arguing in an Instagram video that the widely shared exchange had been "taken out of context."
"Greta does a great deal more than just participate in demonstrations - that is, practising civil disobedience, suing states, and so on," he said, per Daily Mail.
He added that Thunberg had moved beyond her Fridays For Future phase and had concluded that organized demonstrations and panel talks were "ineffective".
"And that’s why she laughs – in the sense of, 'They’re still doing that,' he said. "Greta herself came to the conclusion that... one must operate from the outside, in opposition, and with strong activism."
Thunberg's activism increasingly focuses on Palestine
Thunberg rose to fame as the face of the youth climate movement. In recent years, however, she has used her platform to advocate for Palestinians.
In October 2025, she was detained by Israeli forces after trying to reach Gaza aboard an aid flotilla, following a similar mission earlier that June.
In December 2025, she was jailed in London while supporting imprisoned Palestine Action members who were on a hunger strike.
Most recently, she voiced her support for rapper Macklemore after he was dropped from Ed Sheeran's tour for pro-Palestine statements made at one of his concerts.
In an Instagram statement criticizing Sheeran, she wrote: "We are witnessing one of the biggest artists in the world being cancelled because they tried to 'both sides"'Israel's genocide against the Palestinian people."
"This is a clear and undeniable sign that the global consciousness has shifted. The normalisation of an apartheid state, and the attempts to sanitise or justify its actions, will no longer be tolerated. Ed, there is only one victim here: the Palestinian people," she added.