Swedish Civil Defence Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin clarified that video clips circulating of a slip-up by Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson are a “distortion” and part of a “disinformation campaign” in a post to X (formerly Twitter).

In a viral clip, the Swedish PM appears to talk about the Israel-Hamas conflict but seemingly misspeaks and instead of the word for “defence” (forsvar in Swedish), he first says “folk” before correcting himself. Some took this to mean “folkmord” or genocide, similar to the word for international law “folkratt”, according to Al Jazeera.

Bohlin said, “Right now, there are circulating clips with inaccurate translations and distortion of what the Swedish Prime Minister said.”

“What the prime minister actually stated and made clear was that Sweden and the EU stand united in acknowledging Israel’s right to defend itself,” he added.