BuzzFeed Slack Log Shows CEN Verification Gaps, Silverman Dependence And Court-Awareness

This private BuzzFeed Slack export records Alan White and Tom Phillips discussing the CEN investigation across multiple dates between December 2014 and April 2015. The document is significant because it shows the investigation’s development in a more informal back-channel format than the email chains, including early recognition that even supposedly debunked stories were difficult to trace because so many websites had repeated them as fact. On 9 December 2014, Phillips says the story involved “maybe 40 individual things here to verify”, many in Mandarin, and that Craig Silverman was too busy to give it his full attention until later, meaning publication should be pushed into January to reduce the risk of BuzzFeed getting “sued to hell and back”. White agrees the project is large, says BuzzFeed had “30 / 40 things we have to verify”, that they “cant afford to get anything wrong”, and adds: “we might be ending someones business.” Phillips then says they “cant do it without craig”, making this one of the clearest records of the investigation’s dependence on Silverman. The same Slack log also records the language gap, with White saying “someone who speaks chinese would be huuuugely handy” and Phillips saying they may have to dive into Weibo and that BuzzFeed had “few chinese speakers”. Later entries show the investigation moving through the same online-source and publication-chain tracking seen elsewhere: the Lucita Sandoval / Argentinian teacher story, the Chinese “penis story”, CEN’s registered office, NYDN taking CEN stories before Mail or Metro, Mirror links, and BuzzFeed’s own cabbage story. The document is especially important because on 2 April 2015 White writes: “fyi were keeping electronic communication on this to minimum now in case it ends up in court,” to which Phillips responds with laughter. That exchange shows direct awareness that the communications could later become evidence. It should be read alongside the “easy bit”, Silverman-budget, Chinese-language, front-up and final-draft documents, because this Slack log pulls together several central evidence-chain themes: unresolved verification work, reliance on Silverman, language problems, awareness of legal and business risk, informal source-tracking, draft shaping, and a conscious decision to reduce written discussion because of possible litigation.

Source

Part of Central European News & Mike Leidig v BuzzFeed (US Second Circuit Libel Case) – BF Case Documents

Europe Media Published 1 May 2026 at 21:09 Source: 1 November 2016