Greta Thunberg addresses backlash after viral video shows her laughing at climate protestors

Greta Thunberg has spoken out to address a viral video that appeared to show her mocking fellow climate protestors from the movement she created.

The Swedish climate change activist became the global face of a generation back in 2018 when she sparked international school strikes and demanded action from world leaders.

At the time she formed Fridays for Future (FFF) - a movement that snowballed into a global, youth-led organization campaigning for immediate climate action.

However, the 23-year-old no longer demonstrates with the German FFF with the rift stemming from her opposing views on Gaza back in 2023.

After the October 7 attacks, Thunberg came out in support of Palestinians while the German leader of FFF, Luisa Neubauer, rejected the views.

Of course, since then the Swede has been detained by Israeli forces, back in October 2025, after attempting to travel toward Gaza on an aid flotilla - mirroring a similar mission she attempted just months earlier, in June.

Then in December 2025, she was detained in London while supporting imprisoned Palestine Action members who were on a hunger strike.

Now, a newly released German documentary, titled On Tanks into the Climate Crisis, has shown a completely different side to Thunberg than the one we're all familiar with.

It explores the treatment of activists and the ongoing challenges facing modern protest movements around the world today, but in a brief scene shot by filmmaker Hubertus Koch, Thunberg is informed of the German FFF's campaigning.

Koch said: "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 interrupted to ask, 'is it?', before hysterically laughing.

She added: "Really? They still do that?"

Again, Thunberg burst into hysterics once again before calling for the camera to 'cut'.

Now, addressing the backlash she faced, Thunberg released the following statement: "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.

"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.

"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."

As for what exactly people were saying following the controversy, the internet was divided over what her reaction actually meant for the future of the campaign she started.

One user suggested on X: "Fridays for Future was a cult-like movement from the start whose leaders secretly mocked the protesters back then and now openly mock them on camera."

While others argued that her amusement was directed at how safe and conformist the demonstrations have become, noting she prefers far more radical action these days.

Coming to Thunberg's defence, another user wrote: "The point is that she finds the FFF protest too nice, too conformist and too middle-class."