However, the actual tool is only a tiny part of the problem. The bigger part is moderation and spam.
While this is niche that's not a big deal, but it's also nothing like reddit in that case.
What if it does take of? How will you handle spam/astroturfing/hate/illegal comments?
99% of the struggle for any social network is getting people to use it at all. Those problems you list would actually be great to have to deal with, because it means the network is taking off.
I'll initially start by moderating comments myself, (need to create a policy first) and see what to do from there.
In order for a user for flag a post. They must highlight the portion of the ToS that is violated.
This has the added benefit of requiring people to actually read the frickin ToS to use the app!!!!!