Vitalik Buterin calls out Elon Musk on free speech and ‘banhammer’ threat

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin called for Elon Musk to “turn down the temperature” amid a heated debate on his platform over foreign tech workers, which has stirred up new controversy over free speech.

In a Dec. 31 post to X, Buterin said that while he admired Musk’s willingness to fight for freedom of speech, he asked for the Tesla CEO to “turn down the temperature” on the “tone of discourse” and Musk’s alleged shutdown X accounts using the “social media banhammer.”

Buterin’s tweet came in response to an expletive-laden X post from Musk, who was defending the rights of immigrants to work at companies in the United States under H1B visas. 

Musk sparked outrage from conservatives on X when he came out in favor of hiring foreign tech workers at top US companies, with conservatives arguing hiring conditions in the US were becoming less favorable to native citizens.  

Several conservatives then accused Musk of censorship after his social media platform allegedly removed premium features from accounts that criticized his stance on the H1B visa debate.

“Respecting free speech is easy when we agree with the speech and hard when we think it’s awful,” said Buterin, adding:

“But the arguments for respecting free speech anyway are the same as ever: the banhammer is controlled by one group today, it will be controlled by another group tomorrow.” 

He cautioned Musk to be more wary of his tone and ensure that he used his power on X for the benefit of humanity. 

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“The role of leaders in setting the tone is really important and can be used to great good or great evil,” Buterin added. 

“It’s not “wartime mode’ that will get humanity to Mars in one piece, it’s something brighter – and we should get into that mode today.”

Buterin added that the “banhammer” — an informal term used to describe a moderator or administrator to remove certain users for inappropriate behavior — was another example of an ineffective measure to control speech. 

“By the end, public discourse collapses into either balkanization, monoculture (where the winner will be the guy with the biggest hammer, not the guy with the best arguments), or constant war of all against all,” Buterin said.

Musk recently changed his name on X to “Kekius Maximus” — a chimera of internet culture references, combining the popular meme Pepe and Maximus Decimus Meridius, Russel Crowe’s character in the 2000 film Gladiator.

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