Greta Thunberg laughed and asked ‘They still do that?’ about a protest by the movement she started, and now she says the clip is missing context

Greta Thunberg has defended her reaction after a viral video showed her laughing when told about a climate protest by Fridays for Future, the movement she started. The 23-year-old Swedish activist said in an Instagram statement that the clip was missing important political context, as reported by VT.

The moment comes from a newly released documentary called On Tanks Into The Climate Crisis – How Activism Is Criminalised. In the video, German filmmaker Hubertus Koch told Thunberg, “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 him to ask, “Is it?” before laughing and adding, “Really? They still do that?” She laughed again and called for the camera to “cut.”

In her statement, Thunberg said, “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 also criticized parts of the German climate movement for distancing themselves from her pro-Palestinian activism.

Her activism looks a lot different these days

Thunberg said the interview took place on the same day her group was blocking a weapons manufacturer, when they “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.” She accused parts of Germany’s climate movement of failing to confront what she sees as the country’s role in the devastation in Gaza, claiming Germany is “stuck in extremely racist mindsets and tactics while being shamelessly complicit in genocide, ecocide and climate crisis.”

Koch also defended Thunberg in an Instagram video, saying the exchange was “taken out of context.” He said she does much more than take part in demonstrations, including practicing civil disobedience and suing states, and that she has come to see organized demonstrations and panel talks as “ineffective.” He said, “And that’s why she laughs, in the sense of, ‘They’re still doing that.’”

Fridays for Future started in 2018, when a then-15-year-old Thunberg began skipping school on Fridays to protest outside the Swedish parliament and demand climate action. Her solitary protest grew into a global movement, inspiring millions of students to organize demonstrations around the world.

In recent years, Thunberg 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 arrested in London at a protest supporting imprisoned Palestine Action members who were on a hunger strike.

She also voiced support for rapper Macklemore after he was dropped as an opening act over pro-Palestine statements, after which several artists quit Ed Sheeran’s tour. 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.” Sheeran has said that removing Macklemore was the promoter’s decision, not his.