The Fediverse was a virtue signal by extreme leftists (leftists still like to pretend that they support the kind of free speech that Null supports because they know their ideas can only be justified under a framework in which they are not the darlings of the moneyed power) that died when Kiwifarms and Gab (for a day before they decided federation was gay) nazis and Spinster terfs joined, because it split into two ecosystems: the walled garden of Mastodon which blocked Kiwifarms friendly instances, and the rest which didn't do any political blocks. Also the fediverse has a big problem with illegal pornography and it's a bad idea to go there unless you have a good idea how to not see any of that.