CLAIM: Ursula von der Leyen: “Freedom of speech is a virus and censorship is the vaccine.”
CONCLUSION: Ursula von der Leyen’s statement does not concern censorship or the restriction of freedom of expression. On the contrary, it clearly falls within the framework of preventing disinformation through knowledge and the empowerment of citizens. The distortion of her statements completely alters their meaning and constructs a false narrative portraying the European Union as an authoritarian entity seeking to restrict citizens’ freedoms.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, is alleged to have stated in a video that “Freedom of speech is a virus and censorship is the vaccine.” The claim appeared recentrly on numerous social media posts, gathering millions of views (examples here).
The claim also gained wide circulation last February. A video on X/Twitter amassed 3.4 million views and was commented on with the word “Wow” by Elon Musk, thus gaining even more traction.
What are the facts
The video does indeed show Ursula von der Leyen at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit in May 2024. She spoke about disinformation and efforts to strengthen societal resilience, describing disinformation metaphorically as a “virus” in order to explain how prebunking, the proactive dismantling of misleading narratives, can function like a “vaccination” against it. The aim is to strengthen citizens’ ability to recognize manipulation techniques before they spread.
“As technology evolves, we need to build up societal immunity around informaton manipulation. Research has shown that pre-bunking is more successful than de-bunking. Pre-bunking is the opposite of debunking. In short, prevention is preferable to cure. Think of information manipulation as a virus.
Instead of treating an infecton once it has taken hold, that’s the de-bunking, it is better to vaccinate, so that our body is inoculated. Pre-bunking is the same approach. Because disinformation relies on people passing it on to others – it is essential that people know what malign information’s influence is and what the techniques looks like. As that knowledge goes up – our chances of being influenced goes down. And that builds up the societal resilience that we will need.”
The false phrase circulating on social media is a deliberate distortion of this metaphor. Third parties intentionally replace the term “information manipulation” with “freedom of expression” and substitute “prebunking” with the word “censorship,” completely changing the meaning. It is also worth noting that earlier in the same speech, Ursula von der Leyen explicitly emphasized that freedom of speech, the right for everyone to say what they want, to protest and to demonstrate, are “hallmarks of our modern democracy.”
What is prebunking (according to the European Fact-Checking Standards Network – EFCSN)
“Prebunking is a proactive, evidence-based communication strategy that prepares individuals to resist manipulation before they encounter disinformation. It is rooted in inoculation theory and works by warning audiences about anticipated manipulation techniques, exposing them to a ‘weakened’ version of those techniques, and providing preemptive explanations and refutations. Unlike debunking, which intervenes after disinformation has already spread, prebunking operates preventively, before content spreads or takes root. Together, prebunking and debunking constitute complementary stages within a unified spectrum of interventions to counter disinformation.”
Conclusion
Ursula von der Leyen’s statement does not concern censorship or restrictions on freedom of expression. Instead, it clearly belongs to the framework of preventing disinformation through knowledge and citizen empowerment. The distortion of her words fundamentally alters their meaning and fuels a false narrative depicting the European Union as an authoritarian body seeking to curtail citizens’ freedoms.