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Nothing you ever enforce on people will stop them from talking with one another. Some people like to gossip. I find it be largely inconsequential until the gossip turns into fomenting lies or targeted harassment but then that's no longer gossip and is harassment and should be treated as such.
I'd say lead by example and don't engage with it yourself. What I would not do is fundamentally alter your presence to accommodate the gossipers or to avoid being targeted or something.
This is a really good point. Avoiding being a target is hard for some people. Masking can be exhausting for them and it’s unfair. I want their environment to be more hospitable somehow.
Organisations are social ecosystems. This happens. Some person I don’t know said online: it’s more important to be likable then to be good at your Job. Be good, kind, helpful to people, treat everyone with true interest for what they do and respect. Have some passion. Gossip will likely stop. They will protect you as a person and not try to find your problems.
You won't stop those that really want to gossip, judge and probe into peoples lives.
The method I used to express I'm not interested when they continue to engage, beside the obvious method of not engaging in it and not talking behind peoples backs, was to say:
Small minds talk about people, average minda talk about events, and great minds discuss ideas.
Then they can sit with that and figure out if they want to take the insult of being a small mind.
I also found that when there is the office Joke teller that just tells annoyingly lame jokes, that when they approach you and tell a joke, then reply with:
I heard Jokes are a prop for people who aren't inherently funny.
They won't approach you again :)