I'm not sure what kind of new tools we need ?

All the tools to create personal websites existed more than 20 years ago. They haven't disappeared.

If anything they're probably cheaper, easier to find and to configure now, and also, more diverse, slicker, have more features, etc... And as pointed out by others, distributed social networks have existed for probably about ten years now.

And yes, the fact that the author chose to publish this pompous trite on medium is laughable.