Threads’ disappearing ghost posts might not be gone for good

Be careful what you “ghost post” on Threads because it might actually live on forever.

It appears that at least some ghost posts — the new Threads feature Meta launched this week that automatically deletes posts after 24 hours — are being scraped by Google, making them searchable. While writing about the internet’s reaction to the feature, I tested this by plugging text from several screengrabbed ghost posts into Google Search. In multiple cases, I was able to find cached versions of those posts still appearing in search results.

Here’s a screenshot showing the text from Mark Zuckerberg’s own ghost post announcing the feature.

Credit: Screenshot: Google

Here’s another screenshot of a Google result for what appears to be a ghost post from the Threads account @hi.nixson.

Credit: Screenshot: Google

Here’s a Bluesky post, included in my initial article about the internet’s response, that shows screenshots of those original ghost posts.

Here’s a post on X, also included in my original story, featuring a screenshot of a ghost post from journalist Ben Werdmuller about Meta’s alleged history in Myanmar.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Here is a screenshot of that post, which appears to be archived in Google results.

Credit: Screenshot: Google

When you try to click on any of these Threads posts, however, you’re met with a mostly blank page and an error message that reads, “Sorry, something went wrong. Try again.” That tracks, since the posts themselves automatically disappear from Threads after 24 hours.

To be clear, not every ghost post appears to have been scraped. I tested text from several screenshots shared on launch day, and while some showed up in Google Search results, others didn’t. Mashable has reached out to both Meta and Google for clarification and will update this story if we receive a response.

Of course, no one should expect a ghost post — or any post, for that matter — to truly vanish. Screenshots exist, after all. If you say something offensive, controversial, or just plain spicy online, it’s safe to assume it’ll live forever somewhere.

Still, it’s surprising to see that Threads’ “disappearing” posts might linger on Google, even after they’ve technically been deleted.