# Zensursula

Zensursula is the mocking nickname German internet users pinned on Family Minister Ursula von der Leyen in 2009 after she championed federal legislation forcing ISPs to block websites via a secret police blacklist. The portmanteau of 'Zensur' (censorship) and 'Ursula' spread as a Twitter hashtag during a nationwide protest campaign that turned the proposed stop-sign warning screens into viral parody fodder.

## Origin
In January 2009 the German Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, led by Christian Democratic Union politician Ursula von der Leyen, introduced the Access Impediment Act (Zugangserschwerungsgesetz), a bill forcing internet providers to block child pornography sites listed on a secret blacklist maintained by the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA)[2]. Von der Leyen was already one of the government's loudest advocates for mandatory filtering[4].

As the bill moved toward a Bundestag vote, German bloggers, hackers and Twitter users organized a counter-campaign under the hashtag #zensursula, a mash-up of 'Zensur' and 'Ursula' coined to tag the minister with the controversy[1]. An official e-petition titled 'Keine Indizierung und Sperrung von Internetseiten' ('No indexing and blocking of internet sites,' translated from German) hit the 50,000-signature threshold for parliamentary review within three days of launching[1].

- **Platform:** Twitter (#zensursula hashtag) / German blogs
- **Creator:** Unknown
- **Date:** 2009

## Overview
The nickname works as a one-word insult, fusing 'Zensur' (the German word for censorship) with the minister's first name to brand Ursula von der Leyen as the face of state web blocking[1]. On blogs and forums the label traveled alongside image macros built around the red 'Stopp' sign that the Access Impediment Act would have required ISPs to serve when users requested blacklisted URLs[2]. Edits swapped the sign's text, pasted it over the minister's portrait, or mocked up fake browser pop-ups listing absurd 'forbidden' content.

Audio parodies and video remixes also targeted the pro-censorship talking point 'Das Internet darf kein rechtsfreier Raum sein' ('the internet must not be a lawless space')[3], a line activists later threw back sarcastically. The #zensursula hashtag kept the label circulating on Twitter as the policy fight stretched through spring and summer 2009[1].

## How to Use
Zensursula typically appears as a Twitter hashtag or an inline label for Ursula von der Leyen in internet-policy conversations, often paired with the red German 'Stopp' sign remix[3]. Common uses include tagging news about any state filtering proposal, captioning portraits of the former minister, or quoting the 'rechtsfreier Raum' line sarcastically[1].

## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Zensursula?
Zensursula is the mocking German nickname given to Ursula von der Leyen in 2009 for her advocacy of mandatory ISP-level censorship of child pornography sites[1].

### Where did Zensursula come from?
It emerged on Twitter and German blogs as the #zensursula hashtag during the debate over the 2009 Access Impediment Act drafted under von der Leyen's Family Affairs ministry[2].

### What does Zensursula mean?
The word is a portmanteau of 'Zensur,' the German word for censorship, and 'Ursula,' the first name of Ursula von der Leyen[3].

### How do you use Zensursula?
People use it as a shorthand insult or hashtag tying von der Leyen to internet censorship, often alongside parodies of the red 'Stopp' warning sign the law would have required ISPs to display[3].

### Is Zensursula still popular?
The hashtag peaked in 2009 around the protests and the Act's passage, but the label stuck with von der Leyen through her later German cabinet roles and still turns up in German internet-policy debates[4].

## References
1. [https://netzpolitik.org/2009/the-dawning-of-internet-censorship-in-germany/](<https://netzpolitik.org/2009/the-dawning-of-internet-censorship-in-germany/>)
2. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_Germany](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_Germany>)
3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/zensursula](<https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/zensursula>)
4. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_von_der_Leyen](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_von_der_Leyen>)
5. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fu3Yr829SM](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fu3Yr829SM>)

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Source: https://meme.com/memes/zensursula
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