hello friends! new(ish)!
Fediverse
This dongle is a GNU Social (previously known as StatusNet) is a distributed service created by The GNU Project to provide a fully-free network for social networking. The fact that it is distributed means that there is not a single service that you are locked to. A person who uses Quitter, for instance, can follow people on The Rainbow Dash Network due to them both using the GNU Social network.
The network software itself is much like Twitter, but the actual interface differs between implementations. Some websites, such as the aforementioned Quitter, are designed to look like Twitter, while the aforementioned Rainbow Dash Network is designed to look more like a message board, for example.
This is the only Social Network that RMS endorses, and the only one he actually uses (through a posting bot). GNU Social has no Code of Conduct but it is assumed you won't be a dick or else face the ban-hammer.
GNU Social is the sister service to GNU FM.
Controversy
A large number of GNU Social sites require Javascript to work properly. This means that many web browsers (such as Lynx) can not use the site. However, the Javascript has been put under a Free Software License under the guidelines of The GNU Project's Javascript Guide.
Exodus from twitter
In 2016, with the #RIPTwitter tag trending due to dramatic changes, a massive flood of twitter users went to GNU Social (mostly on Quitter). This boosted the post count from 20 posts per hour to 20 posts per minute. A large amount of spam and Normie accounts have been created, however. This developing event is to early to decide if it is a new Eternal September.
The mass-exodus from Twitter made a large amount of users not even understand what the hell GNU Social is. This caused the moderation to post a disclaimer explaining it. It linked this article as a brief explanation of the network.