@liaizon Thats true, but this way I think you can boil down the regular use of the phrase to the finding that the news outlets think those concepts of Fediverse and Metaverse are new to most of their readers.

You can trace back similar uses of "so called" on other new technologies like microblogging or world wide web. For me it's just a neutral phenomenon and not a devaluation.

That doesn't mean that the media is neutral on the Fediverse, which I also doubt.