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Who is handling Gabby Petito's Instagram? Comments limited on her account

Gabby Petito’s Instagram account was earlier deleted on Wednesday but it was soon back

The missing case of a Long Island woman, Gabby Petito, has left people across the country as well as the authorities scratching their heads as there were no leads that could give whereabouts of her. And to add more complications to it, the 22-year-old’s Instagram page, which was pretty much active till Tuesday, September 14, suddenly disappeared around 6 am to 10 am ET on Wednesday, September 15. People soon started speculating that her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, must have details of the account and he did something to it.

Weirdly, Gabby’s Instagram account was back in around four hours. A spokesperson for the photo and video-sharing social networking service also cleared the air around it and mentioned that the page was “mistakenly taken down” as the company was probing fake accounts impersonating the young woman. They added: “The account was removed in error for impersonation and has now been reinstated.”

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However, there is still some mystery surrounding it. While Gabby’s social media page is back, the comments have now been limited. The hiker’s account, which has over 120K followers, can be seen by anyone since it’s a public account. Also, people can like her posts, but they cannot comment on them now. Instagram has also not provided any statement related to this new development.

Who is the mystery person handling Gabby's Insta account?

Twitter was filled with doubts and questions after comments were limited to Gabby’s page. A user wrote, “If anyone is paying attention to this Gabby Petito case, I just went on to her Instagram again and now all comments have been limited???” The second one said, “I noticed that too, I’m wondering if the mass commenting is making it crash or something?” The third one added: “I noticed this too but I’m not sure if Instagram automatically does this or if somebody has to manually do it on the account!”

A person asked, “Does anyone notice on Gabby petito instagram, the comments on all her post have been limited. It wasn’t limited before, who is using her instagram??? Is it the police or brian??? Im suspecious on who is limiting the comments on her ig?” Another one tweeted, “So anyone following the Gabby Petito missing person case… this is creepy as fuck. Allegedly her boyfriend has been editing her Instagram posts to create an alibi for himself and look at these hashtags that were posted on one of her photos #LeaveNoTrace !?” “Gabby Petito comments on her posts have been deactivated. IF @instagram itself didnt do it I wonder who hmmmm maybe it’s the guy she was with on a trip and her recent pics are super sketchy,” a tweet suggested.

People on a Reddit page, r/GabbyPetito, also shared their theories. A user posted, "If Brian had access to her account, the authorities would know. Most likely it is her family or Instagram itself moderating anything. Comments that are deemed hateful are limited. And stuff is limited all the time on celebrities and famous peoples social media." Another one noted, "It could be the police doing it, because if they're using the account as evidence, they wouldn't want more and more comments from strangers to clog up what they're already looking through."

"Why is his Instagram still not locked? Like I’m surprised he himself didn’t lock it with all the comments he’s getting. Unless the psycho actually likes the attention," a person asked and the second one added: "Ah! It is a setting actually. I use Instagram myself but this is a recent setting. So perhaps Instagram or someone else activated it. I wonder if it became activated as part of the account going back up somehow."

Meanwhile, Brian, 23, has been declared as a person of interest in the disappearance case of Gabby, who went on a cross-country trip with him. Her last known location was in Wyoming in late August before she was reported missing on September 11. Search operations have been launched there and her stepfather, James Schmidt, former fire chief for the Blue Point Fire Department, has also joined the efforts. He told DailyMail.com at Grand Teton National Park, “This is where she was last known to be going. She was traveling through the west out here, from Colorado to Utah, up through the Grand Teton region. We felt we needed a presence here, to let people know we're here and we want to find Gabby and bring her home."

“Since we got here, we've been basically working almost around the clock trying to gather information and let it be known that we're out here and that we're looking for her. I spoke to one law enforcement official. We're really just here to support them in their investigation. We don't want to interfere and hinder anything that they have, but we just want to show that we're here for them and available for them at a moment's notice for any questions or anything they may need,” James added.