Privacy and retention
Plain language, chosen before you post — never adjusted after the fact.
Five audiences
Every Story is published to exactly one of these. There is no default that quietly means "everyone."
- People I follow
- Only people you follow on Stories can see this.
- My followers
- Only people who follow you on Stories can see this.
- Mutuals
- Only people you follow who also follow you back can see this.
- Custom list
- Only the people on the list you choose can see this.
- Public — anyone signed in
- Anyone signed in to GitHub Stories can see this.
On top of the chosen audience, an author can hide a Story from specific people, and turn replies or reactions off per item.
Every item expires — per item, not per account
Each Story item disappears exactly 24 hours after it was published — measured from that item's own publish time, not from the account's last post or first post of the day. Post three items across an afternoon and the first one is gone while the third is still up. There is no way to pin an item past 24 hours, and no paid tier that changes this.
Private media sits behind an authorization gateway
Media is not served from a public object URL or a long-lived signed link. Every request for a photo or video is checked, at request time, against the current audience, blocks, hides and deletion state, and streamed through an authenticated gateway. That means a block, an audience change or a deletion takes effect immediately — there is no already-issued link floating around that keeps working after you've changed your mind.
What this cannot do
None of the above un-sends anything. If a pixel already reached another person's screen — rendered in their browser, downloaded by their terminal, screenshotted — deleting the Story here does not reach back onto their device and remove it. Expiry, audience controls and deletion stop future access. They do not undo past access.
Moderation
Reports go to a moderation queue, independent of the author. Suspended accounts stop appearing to others immediately; their existing items still expire on the same 24 -hour clock rather than persisting indefinitely as evidence.