Sounds like VB did 10x more research for this article than their original. Preventative measures (i.e. real journalism) would have avoided the need for this awkward band-aid.
I would avoid calling it a social network, simply because of the increasing "social network fatigue." Even when fatigue isn't tangible (and I don't think it yet is for social networks) it can mean the difference between a potential user visiting your site and possibly signing up, or never even clicking the link.