Vitalik calls on Musk to be more reserved about H1B visa controversy: "Banhammer" strategy is not advisable

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin called on Elon Musk to "turn down the temperature" on his remarks regarding the H1B visa controversy. Musk was defending the rights of immigrants holding H1B visas to work for American companies, and his rhetoric was fierce. Vitalik said that while he admired Musk's willingness to fight for free speech, he expected him to be less extreme and not "abuse" social media censorship. Musk's public support for top American companies to hire foreign technical workers has drawn the ire of conservatives on X, who believe that the US hiring conditions are increasingly unfavorable to native citizens. Subsequently, several conservatives accused Musk's social media platform X of censorship, which allegedly removed premium features of accounts that criticized Musk's position in the H1B visa debate. “It’s easy to respect free speech when we agree with it, and hard to respect it when we think it’s bad,” Vitalik said. “But the reason to respect free speech is the same as it always is: bans controlled by one group today will be controlled by another tomorrow.” He warned Musk to be more careful with his tone and make sure his power at X is for the benefit of humanity. “The role of leaders in setting the tone is very important, and can be used for great good or great evil,” Buterin added. Buterin called the “banhammer” (an informal term used to describe a moderator or administrator removing a user who has behaved inappropriately) another example of an ineffective speech control measure, “In the end, public discourse either falls into fragmentation, a monoculture (the winner will be the one with the biggest hammer, not the one with the best argument), or a constant war between everyone.”