Published SourceCutting / Usage Record

BuzzFeed Shackles Story Shows CEN Charity Appeal Later Criticised By BuzzFeed Despite Its Own Free Use

This archived screenshot preserves BuzzFeed’s reposting of the CEN-linked story “Man’s Arm Grows Over Shackles”, about a Chinese man whose skin had grown over shackles after years in chains. The item is significant because the story was not simply viral tabloid material: it became part of a Journalism Without Borders appeal, where CEN raised money, sent the donations to the hospital that removed the chains, and later produced a follow-up showing that the treatment had helped cure him. The screenshot matters in the wider BuzzFeed/CEN evidence chain because BuzzFeed had lifted and used the story for free, apparently unaware that it had been deliberately provided without charge to gain publicity for a charitable appeal. BuzzFeed then went on to criticise media organisations and publishers for using CEN material, while failing to recognise that it had itself benefited from the same story and from the humanitarian publicity campaign behind it. Read alongside the wider CEN/BuzzFeed material, this item helps document how BuzzFeed’s later moral framing ignored the real-world context, purpose and outcome of some CEN stories, including cases where viral distribution was used to raise awareness and practical help rather than merely generate traffic.

Source

Part of Central European News & Mike Leidig v BuzzFeed (US Second Circuit Libel Case) – Archived Web Screenshots

Europe Media newsX CIC Published 3 May 2026 at 13:59 Source: 16 July 2016

Tags

BuzzFeedCENCentral European NewsJournalism Without BordersChinese manshacklescharity appealhospital treatmentdonationsfree useviral newshumanitarian storycharitable reportingfollow-up storyBuzzFeed criticismmedia hypocrisysource contexteditorial purposeMailOnlineAustrian Timesarchived web screenshotsource evidencelibel case evidence

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Credit: newsX

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