Russian network VK nixes online ‘Miss Hitler’ beauty pageant after backlash from Israel

A popular Russian social media network is hosting an online "Miss Hitler" beauty pageant on its page solely devoted to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, who was responsible for the deaths of millions of people during World War II.

The competition on VKontakte, also known as VK, reportedly drew the attention of hundreds of Hitler-lovers who enrolled as contestants with a series of Nazi-inspired photos of themselves. The contest saw participants from all over the world, including Germany, Italy and the U.S.

The Russian Facebook-lookalike, which is Europe's largest social media network with half a billion active users, decided to suspend the controversial competition after being confronted by Israeli TV network Hadashot, the Times of Israel reported Friday.

VK went on to block its Adolf Hitler page which now reads "This community has been blocked due to calls to violence."

The webpage initially launched the online beauty pageant by saying it aimed to "promote Hitlerian culture, encourage interaction between the Hitlerian community, clear the image of Adolf Hitler and show the beauty of Hitlerian culture."

According to the Times of Israel, hundreds of contestants giving "sexy poses" either with Nazi salutes or Nazi memorabilia were posted on VK, and got thousands of views.

The contestants even attached a detailed entry to their pictures, explaining how they perceived and preserved neo-Nazi values and gave examples of their prior activities in neo-Nazi organizations.

Hadashot previously reported that the Miss Hitler competition was uncovered by Vocative, a company which uses proprietary data-mining technology to analyze online content in a total of 15 languages.