Vitalik criticized the EU's "zero space" governance, advocating for user empowerment, incentive mechanisms, and transparency instead of control

In response to the "zero space" governance emphasized by the EU Digital Services Act, Vitalik calls for replacing "puritanical" control with user empowerment, incentive mechanisms, and transparency to maintain true freedom of speech and a diverse society.

Vitalik believes that this "zero space" concept is an impulse towards totalitarianism and anti-diversity, as it attempts to completely eliminate subjective controversial content (such as "hate speech" or "false information"), which will inevitably create conflict and build a technocratic authoritarian mechanism to enforce it. Vitalik argues that a free society must accept that some people will sell "dangerous products" or spread "malicious opinions," but the goal should not be to eradicate them entirely, but to prevent such content from dominating the discourse. Vitalik advocates for a "Pirate Party-style" user empowerment: incentivizing rather than banning harmful content; promoting social platforms to be more open, transparent, and so on.