I had high hopes for WT Social (Wikimedia's news & social networking website), but from my experience it doesn't work really well (yet). The concept looked good, though. They claim to have solved the issues (by design) mentioned in the article.
It seems that the WT Social app hasn't been working for almost a year (according to Google Play Store reviews). I'm curious and will look further on their website. Thanks for making me aware.
I've decided to host a Mastodon instance for usage among my friend circle. I'm hoping that that brings down the negativity a fair bit.