A Swedish government agency has apologised for blocking Israel’s ambassador to Stockholm on Twitter, after wrongly flagging the account as having engaged in hate speech.

The Swedish Institute published an apology for blocking Isaac Bachman and thousands of other Twitter users, on its website on Tuesday.

By blocking the accounts of some 14,000 users on Twitter the Swedish Institute prohibited people from mentioning its user name @Sweden and reading its Twitter feed.

The institute confirmed all the blocks had been removed from all accounts that had been suspended.

The statement on its website read: “The Swedish Institute apologises to those who have been blocked mistakenly.”

It explained in the past it had given “its moderators permission to block users, but last week it happened on a larger scale

“The blocks contributed to increased security on the account and to a significant improvement in dialog.

“But the institute also sees the need to examine the question of freedom of expression of authority in this context.”

Mr Bachman had used the social media platform to criticise Sweden’s policies on Israel.

Protesting on Twitter about the fact he had been blocked he wrote: “Now, that #Israel’s MFA and ambassador are blocked — #Sweden is much safer in reading Iran and others [Tweets] that were not blocked @SweInstitute.”