Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, called on Elon Musk to "lower the temperature" because his platform sparked new controversy over freedom of speech in a fierce debate about foreign tech workers. In an X-post released on December 31, Buterin said that while he admired Musk's willingness to fight for freedom of speech, he asked Tesla's CEO to "lower the temperature", ease the "tone of speech", and stop using the "social media banhammer" to close X accounts.