Russian social media network takes down page of ‘Miss Hitler’ beauty pageant
Virtual event on platform with half a billion users asked contestants to submit sexy Nazi-themed selfies and explain why they ‘love and revere the Third Reich of Adolf Hitler’
A Russian social media network has taken down the event page for a “Miss Hitler” beauty pageant slated to take place later this summer after an appeal from an Israeli group, Channel 12 reported Thursday.
The Miss Hitler 2019 page on the VKontakte (also known as VK) site included dozens of posts praising the Nazi leader and cause. The virtual competition has drawn contestants from Germany, Italy, Russia, and the US, according to Channel 12.
This is the second year in a row that appeals from Israel have led to VK removing pages associated with the event.
The competition page on VK, a Russian equivalent of Facebook and Europe’s largest social media network with half a billion users, encouraged women to enter by posting sexy Nazi-themed selfies together with an entry explaining why they “love and revere the Third Reich of Adolf Hitler.”
Last year, women sent in photographs of themselves performing Nazi salutes, at neo-Nazi rallies, or posing with Nazi memorabilia.
For this year’s event, page visitors were to be given from August 8 to September 1 to judge the various pictures submitted.
According to the Israeli Btsalmo NGO, which describes itself as a “rights group with a Jewish spirit,” VK agreed to take down the page after they had reached out to complain. The social media network agreed that the competition violated the site’s community standards against hate speech.
Btsalmo said that a Portuguese group has been hosting the pageant annually since since 2014. Last year, VK took down the event page after a similar complaint was filed by Channel 12.