There is tremendous power in learning from the Sefer Chofetz Chaim each day. In this crucial time, we’re going to help encourage that effort with a few halachos a day using Sefaria’s translation (https://www.sefaria.org/Chafetz_Chaim).
-Part One, The Prohibition Against Lashon Hara, Principle 2, Seif 7
And if the speaker exhorted [the hearers] not to reveal it, even if he said it before many, the issur of lashon hara obtains for the one who reveals it afterwards, even by chance. And even if he sees that one of the hearers or two did not heed this exhortation and revealed [what “he” heard] to others, in spite of this, this third one, may not reveal the thing to others, even by chance. [See Be’er Mayim Chayim.]
-Part One, The Prohibition Against Lashon Hara, Principle 2, Seif 8
There is no difference in the language of the exhortation, whether he exhorted them not to mention the subject at all anymore, or whether he said to them, “Let none of this be made known by you” — in all modes, it is forbidden to reveal the demeaning of another, even to a different person; how much more so to the person demeaned himself. For if it is revealed to another, in the end it will become known to all, and even to him [the person demeaned] through the channels of “Your friend has a friend, etc.” It also seems obvious that [the heter of apei telata applies] only if the hearers were three, as opposed to an instance of two who spoke before two, where this heter does not apply at all. [See Be’er Mayim Chayim.]
