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- The Gabby Petito subreddit has been locked down since Sunday night.
- One moderator told Insider that subreddit leadership wanted to avoid "repeat posts."
- The forum has grown to over 90,000 members since it was created a week ago.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
A Reddit page dedicated to uncovering information about missing 22-year-old Gabby Petito, an aspiring van travel influencer from Long Island, New York, has restricted new posts after authorities said that remains found in Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming were consistent with the woman's description.
Since the day after Petito was reported missing, September 12, the subreddit has been a popular spot to discuss theories, information, and clues about her mysterious disappearance, which has captivated news consumers and social media sleuths in one of the most viral stories of the year.
In just a week, the forum has amassed over 90,000 subscribers. According to SubRedditStats, a site that collects Reddit data, it has averaged over 6,400 comments per day.
"The subreddit is currently locked to new posts because we're at a point where people are waiting for breaking news, they are no longer trying to figure out what happened or weave a story from what they think the available facts are," one moderator of the forum told Insider on Monday after the page was limited on Sunday evening.
Petito went missing in late August after embarking on a cross-country road trip with her fiance, Brian Laundrie. According to Newsday, the pair embarked on their journey on July 2 from Blue Point, New York, posting images on Instagram along the way. Her last post was tagged in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming on August 24 before her account went silent.
The FBI's Denver bureau said in a statement on Sunday night that "human remains consistent with the description" of Petito were found in the Bridger-Teton National Forest.
The story has exploded on multiple social media platforms amid intense public attention, with the hashtag #gabbypetito pulling in over 500 million views on TikTok and new aspects of the story consistently trending on Twitter.
Subreddit moderator u/chikinbizkit wrote on Sunday in a "megathread," or a long post containing a collection of comments that the subreddit was being "locked down for a little while due to the massive volume of repeat posts we received pertaining to the latest announcement," referring to the FBI statement.
Whenever new information breaks in a story, it's common to see Redditors dropping posts about the news in an attempt to get the top-voted post and earn Reddit karma, or points that get applied to your profile whenever someone upvotes your content. Locking down the subreddit is one way to handle a wave of repeat posts that don't add to the overall conversation but clog up the subreddit.
A post created by moderator alienkweenn on Sunday night, sharing that the FBI found a body, managed to pull in over 16,000 comments in under 24 hours.
"We want to thank all of you for caring about Gabby and her family," moderator u/petiterunner wrote on the post. "It is with all of your cooperation in following the rules and reporting rule-breaking material that we can keep this community a respectful place filled with people who care for her."