Why is Threads recommending these weird spammy posts from people looking for friends?

Remember in the early days, when theThreads’s algorithm was like a commanding, very quirky friend, throwing weirdly delightful posts at you? Now the algorithm has gone into matchmaking mode. Say goodbye to insightful takes; be prepared for an assault wave of strangers asking and begging, “Friends please!” on your feed, turning it into a virtual singles bar.

Threads’ “related threads” section throws some serious curveballs. You start scrolling, and suddenly boom! A cascade of selfies purporting to be from accounts claiming to belong to 18-year-olds. The faces pop up on the recommendation streams for users not even logged in, have been witnessed by Engadget. The big question: What kind of sick logic does the algorithm follow to associate them with other trending posts?

Now, imagine scrolling Threads just casually and without logging in. It is a post from Chris Messina about Spotify. Interesting, isn’t it? You click on it. But then, it just keeps getting better! Below Chris’ post, a ‘related’ post from Adam Mosseri shows up. Luckily for you, deeper down into the hole, another ‘related’ post awaits – this one coming from an account of an 18-year-old high schooler. What’s going on here?

Screenshot via Threads

Threads’ “related threads” feature is throwing out some seriously weird curveballs. For one, the app suggested a post with just a photo and a WhatsApp link, a pretty odd combination. The profile turned out to be fairly interesting: a bot-like barrage of identical posts, photo plus WhatsApp link, repeated more than thirty times over the past five days. What is going on here?

Screenshot via Threads

According to my research, even the big names at Engadget aren’t safe. Editor-in-chief Aaron Souppouris had his post somehow lurking in there in my “related threads” section…while I was logged out.

Screenshot via Threads

Threads, with more than 350 million users, has unfortunately become the playground for spammers. Weeks into its launch, Meta’s chief product officer Mosseri reported a surge in “spam attacks” affecting the platform badly. Since last year, the attempt to fight the dark side of engagement has been put into motion, restricting any form of illicit clickbait methods.

Threads is drowning under a flood of spam which should hardly surprise, any further notorious for its huge user base. What IS surprising is that Threads fulfills its algorithmic capacity to promote this garbage. Meta remained silent on the matter of why these spammy posts continue to pepper users’ “related” content feeds, only very discreetly acknowledging in a manner, yes, we probably shouldn’t have allowed this.

Spam is not clogging your inbox; it is now seeping into your Instagram feed. A confused Reddit user tripped over a curious “recommended” post: a selfie with a straightforwardly blunt caption, “I need a bf 🎀 Age don’t mind.” Upon digging deeper, the user unearthed a spam mine that had dozens of similar posts clogging the account. “Every time the suggested Threads window pops up, it’s a gauntlet of these posts before I see anything resembling normal content,” the Redditor lamented, “I report them religiously; I hit ‘not interested,’ but they keep crawling back!” Clearly, Meta’s algorithm needs some heavy digital detoxing.

Screenshot via Threads

In a bizarre case of a spam wave, user feeds are being loaded with identical selfies and the unsettling phrase “age doesn’t matter.” One Redditor had the whistle blown on him, but spooky pairs are appearing elsewhere. Further digging revealed an army of accounts pushing these age-ambiguous ads in a relentless campaign. What lies behind this coordinated assault?

Feel free to send along the wild things spotted on Threads. Was it a post for which you would suddenly think to stop and stare? Or shall I say, karissa.bell [at] engadget.com; for confidential tips, Signal: karissabe.51. Let’s get together and check out weird on Threads.

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