DISINFO: Greta Thunberg is a liar
SUMMARY
The Swedish activist Greta Thunberg was accused of lying after she posted on her personal account on Twitter a picture of herself on the floor of a train coming from Germany. The picture shows Thunberg sitting on the floor of the train returning from the climate summit in Madrid to Sweden. She explained that her train from Basel had been cancelled, and therefore she had to take another train without a seat. Meanwhile, the activist stressed that crowded trains “is a great sign because it means that the demand for train travel is high”.
In response, the German railroad company, “Deutsche Bahn” wrote on its Twitter account that it would have been good if Thunberg talked about “how friendly and competent you were looked after by our team at your seat in first-class”.
RESPONSE
This article is part of a vicious campaign by Russian state media against Greta Thunberg. The campaign itself is part of a pro-Kremlin disinformation campaign against the climate movement.
It is true that Thunberg tweeted a photograph of herself sitting on the floor of a German train on Saturday with the caption: “Traveling on overcrowded trains through Germany. And I’m finally on my way home.” It is also true that the German railway company Deutsche Bahn AG implied in a tweet that Greta did have a seat in the first class. However, the part of the story that this piece conveniently missed in order to smear Greta is that she was not offered a seat except after more than four hours into her journey.
Greta tweeted in response to Deutsche Bahn AG's tweet saying: "Our train from Basel was taken out of traffic. So we sat on the floor in 2 different trains. After Göttingen I got a seat. This is no problem of course and I never said it was. Overcrowded trains is a great sign because it means the demand for train travel is high!"
For more disinformation cases about Greta Thunberg, see here.