Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has issued a sharp public warning to Elon Musk over how X is being used to direct increasingly aggressive rhetoric at Europe, arguing that the platform is drifting from a free-speech ideal toward orchestrated hostility.
Ethereum Founder Calls Out Elon Musk
In a series of posts on X, Buterin said that “the attacks on Europe I’ve seen here the last couple of days, including from people I’ve generally considered interesting and sophisticated, have been getting unhinged.”
He acknowledged that the European Union has serious shortcomings, listing “GDPR clickthroughs are dumb, Chat Control is awful, they need to be less bureaucratic and supportive toward entrepreneurs,” and criticizing what he called Europe’s selective moral stance, noting that its “kindness toward Ukraine often doesn’t extend well to Gaza or Sudan or other places.” He also described “people saying mean things about criminals getting longer sentences than the criminals” as “just crazy.”
Despite that, the Ethereum founder argued that the way some users on X are talking about Europe has moved well beyond legitimate criticism. He described “the apocalyptic attitude about the issues, evoking imagery of barbarians pillaging Rome etc,” as “really over the top” and said it “feels more like a coordinated attempt to delegitimize than constructive criticism.”
He rejected the idea that the real target is only Brussels-based institutions, writing: “I don’t believe the line that ‘the target is not Europe, it’s the EU’: I’ve seen many instances of London specifically being targeted in the hate session, so no, much of it is an attack on Europe.” This, he argued, does not match his experience from “spending an average of two months every year there for the last decade.”
The central confrontation came in a direct reply to Musk. Addressing the X owner’s self-positioning as a defender of free speech, the Ethereum founder wrote: “I think you should consider that making X a global totem pole for Free Speech, and then turning it into a death star laser for coordinated hate sessions, is actually harmful for the cause of free speech. I’m seriously worried that huge backlashes against values I hold dear are coming in a few years’ time.”
Buterin Hints At Russian Involvement
The thread sparked pushback from some users who argued that his framing underplays European complicity in current conflicts. One critic responded that “’not extending kindness’ is an incredible way to frame funding, arming and politically backing a genocide,” and claimed that it is “hilarious to think the US doesn’t suffer from many of the same things or worse that Americans say about the EU.”
The Ethereum founder replied that Europe is “a genuinely mixed bag,” emphasizing that “different countries in Europe have very different policies,” and pointing out that the continent “also hosts ICC, which is under a lot of pressure (see: judges being financially deplatformed).”
Other replies widened the lens to geopolitics. Commenting on a suggestion that the current discourse looks like “a coordinated campaign due to the Kremlin liking the new US ‘going back to Monroe’ global security policy,” Buterin answered “yeah basically” and added that “a lot of powerful people really like the vision that the world should just be 5–20 adults who have their spheres and sometimes get together in a room to hash out any differences, and everyone else can be shut out because they are annoying and inconvenient.”
At the same time, Buterin restated his support for the European project as an institutional experiment. “I have a lot of respect for the idea of EU, as an experiment in trying to get the benefits of a superstate, without the homogenization, becoming an aggressive ‘great power’, and other downsides,” he wrote, while stressing that “the experiment does need to be adjusted in a lot of ways; eg. we see not enough unity in its external policy and too much unity on top-down bureaucracy and surveillance at the same time.” If improved, he argued, “it’s a model that could set a really good example for the world.”
On the technical side, the Ethereum founder used the debate over “gdpr clickthroughs” to propose a different approach to online control, calling for “more sophisticated user-side software (browsers, local LLMs…) that helps the user navigate the internet and make intelligent decisions about what requires confirmations from the user.” In contrast to the centralized dynamics he criticizes on X, he is effectively pointing back to user-empowering, decentralized tools as the way to reconcile regulation, usability and free expression.
Musk Vs. The European Union
Notably, Musk’s anti-EU outburst comes after the Commission has issued a fine of €120 million to X for breaching its transparency obligations under the Digital Services Act (DSA). Musk wrote via X that “The ‘EU’ imposed this crazy fine not just on @X, but also on me personally, which is even more insane!” and says it would be “appropriate to apply our response not just to the EU, but also to the individuals who took this action against me.”
In subsequent posts he escalated further, declaring that “The EU should be abolished and sovereignty returned to individual countries,” calling to “Dissolve the EU and return power to the people,” and even asserting that “The EU commissars are responsible for the murder of Europe.”
At press time, Ethereum traded at $3,316.
