Vitalik Buterin Calls for ZK-Proofs in Social Media

Buterin urged social media to adopt blockchain tools for transparency.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has urged social media executives to adopt cryptographic and blockchain tools. According to him, this would render content ranking systems transparent and verifiable.

I would go further. ZK-prove every decision made by the algorithm (ideally have content and likes/RTss timestamped onchain so the server can’t censor or lie about time), and commit to publishing the full algorithm code with a 1-2 year delay.

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) December 15, 2025

To address the issue, Buterin proposed using zero-knowledge proofs. This technology would confirm the fairness of algorithms determining the reach of posts.

The Ethereum co-founder also recommended:

• recording all posts, likes, and retweets on the blockchain to protect against censorship and time manipulation;
• publishing the full algorithm code with a 1-2 year delay.

The initiative was supported by Ethereum Foundation’s AI lead Davide Crapis.

if you want to claim X is the platform for free speech, you should disclose your algorithm optimization targets

it should be legible to the users, and tweakable

— Davide Crapis (@DavideCrapis) December 15, 2025

He noted that the platform should disclose its algorithm optimization goals so that users understand how they operate.

Social Media Under Regulatory Pressure

According to Reuters, Meta has shut down its internal research on Facebook’s impact on mental health. This followed the company’s discovery of evidence of harm caused by its products.

Research indicated that abstaining from Facebook for just a week reduces levels of depression, anxiety, and loneliness. A separate scientific report from 2024 linked access to this social network with increased susceptibility to misinformation.

The European Union is tackling the issue through the Digital Services Act (DSA), which mandates platforms to be transparent about their algorithms and assess risks to public safety and elections.

The DSA also requires providing independent researchers with access to social media data. X’s refusal to comply with this condition was one reason for the €120 million fine imposed by the European Commission.

Additional complaints against Elon Musk’s company include:

• lack of transparency in the advertising repository;
• misleading users through the “blue check” system: the commission emphasized that anyone can obtain paid verification status on X without real identity verification.

In November, Buterin spoke out against the geolocation feature in X, calling it “risky.”