“It’s already out there” is what everyone says right before they spread it further.

Pointing out that something has already spread is a way of handing off responsibility a second before adding to it. The sentence sounds like an observation and works as permission, because if the damage exists anyway then your share of it does not count. Everyone in the chain gets the same line, which is how something that was out there a little ends up everywhere.

When you hear yourself reaching for that reasoning, treat it as a signal rather than a conclusion. Ask whether the person it concerns would want you holding it. Then let it stop with you, since that was always the only part you controlled.