Lashon Hara can come in any form. It can be written or verbal or through the use of expressions or any other way you can think. (We can see the issur of writing when Yoav showed David HaMelech’s letter to Bnei Yisrael.)
Nor do you have permission to include someone else with your negative comment about yourself. (We see this in Yirmiyahu.)
Im: “kal regah viregah sheadam choshev piv liginut zoche lioor sheein kal malach oobiriah yachol lishar.” Every moment that a person closes his mouth to negativity he merits the light that every malach and briah can’t experience. If you think your business and family meritted this much from preventing the spread of single piece of information that was fairly public, imagine the reward in the next world. I am jelous of you in that respect.