Chinese whispers
idiom

- any situation where information is passed on in turn by a number of people, often becoming distorted in the process

- a game in which a message is passed on, in a whisper, by each of a number of people, so that the final version of the message is often radically changed from the original

(Collins Dictionary)

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The figurative sense of the phrase Chinese whispers stems from the same-named game in which one person whispers a message to another, which is passed through a line of people until the last player announces the message to the entire group.

Errors usually accumulate in the retellings, so the statement announced by the last player differs significantly, and often amusingly, from the one uttered by the first. The changes in the messages can be caused by anxiousness, impatience, and false corrections or even when some players deliberately alter what is being said to guarantee a changed message by the end of the line. The game is popular among children.

It's thought that the use of the word Chinese in this expression, which denotes confusion and misunderstanding, ties back to the first contacts between Europeans and Chinese and describes the Europeans' difficulty in not only understanding China's language, but its culture.

(adapted from Wikipedia)

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SYNONYMS

pass the message, whisper down the lane, broken telephone, operator, grapevine, rumour mill

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Practice OWAD in a conversation

"CHINESE WHISPERS can greatly distort the flow of information through a company."