No, you're the one mistaken.
https://gnu.org/distros/common-distros.html
Debian GNU/Linux
Debian's Social Contract states the goal of making Debian entirely free
software, and Debian conscientiously keeps nonfree software out of the
official Debian system. However, Debian also provides a repository of nonfree
software. According to the project, this software is “not part of the
Debian system,” but the repository is hosted on many of the project's main
servers, and people can readily learn about these nonfree packages by
browsing Debian's online package database.
There is also a “contrib” repository; its packages are free, but some of
them exist to load separately distributed proprietary programs. This too is
not thoroughly separated from the main Debian distribution.
Previous releases of Debian included nonfree blobs with Linux, the kernel.
With the release of Debian 6.0 (“squeeze”) in February 2011, these blobs
have been moved out of the main distribution to separate packages in the
nonfree repository. However, the problem partly remains: the installer in
some cases recommends these nonfree firmware files for the peripherals on the
machine.
