In the vicinity of a density transition region or surface, electron temperature fluctuations are known to drive low frequency electromagnetic surface waves which may be connected with the self‐generation of magnetic fields in the laser–plasma interaction. Two methods of destabilization are considered. In the first approach an accelerating plasma surface is considered and this leads to instability only when an accompanying temperature gradient scale length is at most as large as the density gradient scale length. In the second approach the introduction of current is also found to cause instability near the plasma surface provided an identical temperature gradient threshold is exceeded. In both cases the growth rates for each instability are enhanced by the square root of the ion to electron mass ratio over the associated growth rates for ion‐inertial‐type instability.