Gabby Petito: Crime porn and the making of a posthumous star

Gabby Petito: crime porn and the making of a posthumous star. Citizen journalism, macabre fascination, or cynical opportunism played out by other content creators seeking to garner views from newsjacking, and ultimately profit from this personal tragedy?

Gabby Petito, a 22-year-old #VanLife influencer, went missing on a road trip with her fiancé in August. Human remains, believed to be hers, were found at the weekend. At the time of her disappearance, Petito’s Instagram account had 1,000 followers. Today there are 1.2 million. Her YouTube channel, Nomadic Statik, holds a single video, posted in August. To date, the 8-minute van tour has been viewed 5.2 million times (accruing 1.4 million additional views since I drafted the story on Monday).

Countless YouTube and TikTok accounts have shown an unhealthy obsession with Petito’s disappearance uploading scores of videos examing ‘clues’ around the case. The tag for her name on TikTok has two-thirds of a billion views. (Yes, billion, with a ‘B’).

Abbie Richards, a TikTok disinformation researcher, shares an interesting Twitter thread as she discusses TikTok uploads capitalising on Petito’s disappearance: “Viral videos like this one (with 3.5 million views) pick apart every detail of Gabby’s social media accounts and last exchanges with her family. Imagine your daughter were missing and strangers were picking apart your exchanges with her for their voyeuristic entertainment.”

Is the social media frenzy Richards describes citizen journalism, macabre fascination, or cynical opportunism played out by other content creators seeking to garner views from newsjacking, and ultimately profit from this personal tragedy? Richards describes the phenomenon as “Crime Porn”. She Tweets: “These videos are crime-porn often under the guise “awareness.” Supporting a victim and her family does not include pouring through her intimate details and then broadcasting them for attention and profit on social media. You are not a detective. Log off.”

Moira Donegan, a columnist at the Guardian, tweeted: “Everyone knows this already but it’s very jarring to see the way a woman’s murder in a likely domestic violence situation is morphed into entertainment in real time.” There’s more on the story here.

*A version of this article first appeared in the newsletter I write for Fourth Floor.