From Free Speech to State Control: Von der Leyen’s Plan for the West

Ursula von der Leyen, the unelected bureaucrat installed as European Commission president after a series of scandals in Germany left her politically damaged, delivered an Orwellian speech on “free speech” in May 2024—one that went largely unnoticed at the time but has recently gone viral. The delayed outrage is revealing: as the censorship push accelerates, people are finally grasping what she was really saying. On the surface, her speech sounded like a call for resilience against misinformation. In reality, she was laying the groundwork for a Chinese-style system of information control:

“So once we have detected malign information or propaganda, we need to ensure that it is swiftly removed and blocked. (...) As technology evolves, we need to build up societal immunity around information manipulation. Research has shown that prebunking 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 infection once it has taken hold, that’s the de-bunking, it is better to vaccinate, so that our body is inoculated.”

For centuries, elites have found ways to police speech and thought. Monarchs ruled with absolute authority, and dissent was crushed by force. Later, control took a more sophisticated form through ownership and control of media, publishing, and academia—shaping narratives by deciding what could be printed, broadcast, or taught. The illusion of free speech existed, but it was easily contained within narrow, elite-approved boundaries.

Then came the internet. Suddenly, ordinary people could bypass these gatekeepers. Platforms like Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook allowed anyone to reach millions. For the first time in history, a working-class person with a smartphone could have a larger audience than a network news anchor. This was an existential crisis for the ruling class.

At first, they adapted by co-opting Big Tech. Governments leaned on social media companies to censor “misinformation,” a catch-all term for anything inconvenient to their interests. The Twitter Files exposed just how deeply intertwined government, intelligence agencies and tech executives became. Shadowbanning, algorithmic suppression, and outright bans ensured that elites still had their thumb on the scale.

But now, they’re at a crossroads and that is large part due to Elon Musk—one of the only individuals impervious to their pressure.