Russian social network blocks "Miss Hitler" beauty contest after Israeli media contact

The news server timesofisrael.com reports that Russia’s online social network Vkontakte (VK), which is similar to the US-based social network Facebook, has blocked a page dedicated to Adolf Hitler that was hosting an online beauty competition called “Miss Hitler”. Hundreds of people voted online in the contest and, according to the Hadashot television station in Israel, it was participated in by contestants from Germany, Italy, Russia and the USA.

After Hadashot contacted VK, the competition’s page was taken down and a statement condemning hate was issued by the social network. The page used by the contest was replaced with a page stating that it had been blocked because it called for violence.

The VK page for “Miss Hitler” had urged the competing women to upload “Nazi-themed sexy selfies” along with a caption describing why “they honor and love Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich”. Thousands of people viewed it before it was removed.

Those visiting the page were not afraid to publicize their full names, to post neo-Nazi opinions, or to mention the organizations they belong to. The women sent photographs of themselves giving the Nazi salute, among other things.

The page described some of the aims of the competition as promoting “Hitlerian culture”, encouraging interaction among members of the “Hitlerian community”, rehabilitating the image of Adolf Hitler, and even as “defending and protecting” women. The Israeli company Vocative came across it while conducting an online analysis of different kinds of content in 15 languages.

This is the second time Vocative has discovered a pro-Nazi beauty contest on VK. A prior discovery led to the blocking of a similar effort in 2014.