BuzzFeed, Inc.

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

Disclosure controls and procedures are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by us in our reports under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”) is recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time periods specified in the rules and forms of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer or persons performing similar functions, as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.

Our management, with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, has evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) of the Exchange Act) as of the end of the period covered by this report. In making this evaluation, management considered the material weakness in our internal controls over financial reporting described below. Based upon that evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that, as of December 31, 2025, the period covered in this report, our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective.

Notwithstanding the assessment that our disclosure controls and procedures are not effective and that a material weakness existed as of December 31, 2025, we believe that we have performed sufficient supplementary procedures to ensure that the consolidated financial statements contained in this filing fairly present, in all material respects, our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows for all periods presented, in accordance with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.

Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting

Our management, including Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, are responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) of the Exchange Act). Our management is also required to assess and report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting in accordance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Management assessed the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2025. In making this assessment, we used the criteria set forth by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (i.e., COSO) in Internal Control - Integrated Framework. Based on that evaluation, our management concluded the Company’s internal control over financial reporting was not effective due to the material weakness described below.

Material Weaknesses in Internal Control over Financial Reporting

A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.

We previously disclosed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024 material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting related to (i) a lack of formalized information technology general controls in the area of change management and logical security controls over financial information technology systems, and (ii) a lack of formalized internal controls and segregation of duties surrounding our financial statement close process. As described below, we have remediated one of these material weaknesses during fiscal 2025, while one material weakness remains unremediated as of December 31, 2025.

Remediation Efforts and Status of Material Weaknesses

During fiscal 2025, we continued to take significant steps to remediate the material weaknesses described above, with the following outcomes:

(i) a lack of formalized information technology general controls in the area of change management and logical security controls over financial information technology systems:

We have formalized the processes and controls around security administration and implementing user access reviews for key financial systems. We centralized security administration for our key financial applications and further enhanced logical access controls for the remaining applications. We have designed processes and controls to further support and provide appropriate oversight over key financial systems, including, but not limited to: designed a central change management function and implemented policies and procedures with respect to change management and system development for key financial applications. We documented test procedures and approvals related to changes made in production for key financial applications and maintained separate test and production environments, where applicable. We have tested these controls for operating effectiveness for a sufficient period of time.

Based on the remediation activities and testing performed, management concluded that this material weakness has been remediated as of December 31, 2025.

(ii) a lack of formalized internal controls and segregation of duties surrounding our financial statement close process:

We have designed controls to segregate job responsibilities through a combination of system enforced workflow approvals, security permission, and detective reviews of our general ledger transactions to monitor segregation of duties surrounding our financial statement close process. We tested these controls for operating effectiveness for a sufficient period of time. As a result, we concluded that we remediated the portion of the material weakness above regarding the segregation of duties surrounding our financial statement close process.

However, a portion of the material weakness persists within the financial statement close process. Specifically, deficiencies around the flow of information and supporting documentation across departments to the financial accounting team, the accuracy and completeness of information used in the controls, and sufficient precision and timeliness of reviews of account reconciliations and related analyses.

We continue to improve our processes and control activities and are testing the design and operating effectiveness of our newly implemented and enhanced controls as remediation progresses.

While the Company has made considerable progress this year, we will not be able to fully remediate the remaining portion of the above material weakness within the financial statement close process until we have designed and implemented the remaining planned corrective actions and controls, and tested such controls to demonstrate these controls operate effectively for a sufficient period of time. Our management will continue to monitor the effectiveness of our remediation plans in future periods and will make the changes management determines to be appropriate.

Based on the remediation activities and testing performed, management concluded that the material weakness as described above still exists as of December 31, 2025. The remediation of these deficiencies has required, and will continue to require, a significant amount of time and resources from management and other personnel.

Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting

Other than the material weakness and ongoing remediation efforts described above, there were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting (as such term is defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) of the Exchange Act) during the quarter ended December 31, 2025 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

Inherent Limitations on the Effectiveness of Controls

The effectiveness of any system of internal control over financial reporting, including ours, is subject to inherent limitations, including the exercise of judgment in designing, implementing, operating, and evaluating the controls and procedures, and the inability to eliminate misconduct completely. Accordingly, in designing and evaluating the disclosure controls and procedures, our management recognizes that any system of internal control over financial reporting, including ours, no matter how well designed and operated, can only provide reasonable, not absolute assurance of achieving the desired control objectives. In addition, the design of disclosure controls and procedures must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints and that management is required to apply its judgment in evaluating the benefits of possible controls and procedures relative to their costs. Moreover, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate. We intend to continue to monitor and upgrade our internal controls as necessary or appropriate for our business but cannot assure you that such improvements will be sufficient to provide us with effective internal control over financial reporting.