BuzzFeed shows us how to ruin someone’s career with a tweet

A reported for the Intercept recently contacted BuzzFeed’s Editor-In-Chief, Ben Smith, in order to discuss the possibility of them joining BuzzFeed because they were going to leave their current publication soon. In response, Smith “accidentally” posted screenshots of the conversation on Twitter which, despite quickly being taken down, could  potentially ruin this person’s career, all because some managed to accidentally tweet some screenshots. How do you accidentally tweet a screenshot?!

BuzzFeed’s Editor-In-Chief, Ben Smith, tweeted a screenshot of a private DM conversation between him and a reporter at The Intercept earlier today. In that exchange of messages, the reporter revealed that they are leaving the publication and inquired about jobs at BuzzFeed. Smith told me, via public Twitter replies, that he posted the image by ‘accident’ and cannot find the screenshot on his phone. He followed up by correcting his initial assertion, having found the offending screenshot. We are not naming The Intercept reporter here out of respect to them as it’s clear that they did not give permission for their messages to be publicly revealed. Of course, the details of the exchange have now been captured by many Twitter users and will be easily accessible via search. Once something is on social media, it is very hard to erase it. It’s hard to believe that something like this happens entirely by ‘accident’, but I have to take Smith on his word at this point. He told TNW that he’s “mortified” at what happened. As you would be!