White on Facebook, Nazi on VKontakte: how racists from the USA use the Russian social network

The racists and Nazis from the United States made their VKontakte platform due to the hard moderation on Facebook, the Bellingcat group found out . And if the Russians are judged for historical photographs with Nazi symbols, then the pages of the real American neo-Nazis with the real slogans of the Reich and the Ku-Mlux Clan were not even blocked. After the request of The Bell, the VKontakte administration blocked the Nazi accounts mentioned in the article.

What's happened

Since March 2019, Facebook has banned accounts and posts with the ideology of the superiority of the White race and introduced a rigid moderation. However, neo -Nazis and racists of different talk found a loophole: now they create neutral pages on Facebook, and express their real views on the pages on VKontakte, where moderation is weaker. And they are actively divided by links to them.

Ku-Klus-Clan, Kevin Biyar

Kevin Biyar, “Cyclops” of the Racist movement “Ku-Klux-Klan” on its VKontakte page gives direct instructions on how to involve supporters on Facebook: go to the pages of small television channels and local communities, and in the comments to leave a link to pages and “soft” Nazi posts in Vkontakte. “Just do not get carried away and do not let you ban, calling the black“ monkeys ”, as it was with me several times,” writes Biyar.

Biyar advises to publish restrained content on Facebook to gain an audience, and then push her to read real extremist posts. Despite the moderation, Fan Girl Bleed a Lot (“White Girls more blood”) Colin Flyerorta, who tells about the (imaginary) threat to American white from blacks, is available on Facebook. The page is one of the main platforms for placing links to the radical pages of VKontakte.

The Russian social network helps the American Nazis promote their ideas, even if their pages on Facebook are banned: for example, Biyar called his supporters through VKontakte to write on Facebook, dedicated to a rally for weapons in Virginia, about the threat of black weapons.

Nazi family of Daniel Bernside

Another example is the behavior in social networks of the active national socialist Daniel Burnside. His Facebook profile looks quite respectable - he is a self -employed lumberjack. Although on his page (and on the page of his wife) there are references to racism, they do not go beyond the permitted one: for example, Daniel is signed by many communities such as it's Okay to be White (“Being Bely normal”) and White Lives Matter.

But on the avatar of the page on VKontakte, he stands opposite his house, on which the Nazi flag with a swastika is fluttered, and the place of work is indicated as the “National Socialist Movement”. If on Facebook, children of the Bernside family are photographed in ordinary family situations (for example, father and son go to baseball), on the VKontakte page, children eat a cake on which the swastika is laid out with berries. In the Nazi flag lies his youngest child. The VKontakte account Bernside’s wife, who managed to drag a racist slogan even into the status on Facebook, is generally closed.

Fan of the Third Reich Christopher Goninor

On the Facebook page, Chaninor writes that he is a supporter of the “third position” - this is a neo -fascist political ideology that combines right -wing cultural views with radically left -wing economic. However, in addition to the modest hint of veneration of the Reich (on the cover of Chaninor there was one of the paintings by Adolf Hitler), there is no binding to the fascist ideology on the page: he publishes only himself, photographs of the girl and food.

But on the page on VKontakte, he puts swastikas directly in the status and writes “Blut und Ehre” (“blood and honor”, ​​the slogan of Nazi youth). On the page at Goninor in VKontakte photographs of Adolf Hitler, SS troops and entries with the mention of “14/88” (slogan of white Nazis). He also uploads photographs of the executions by the Nazis during the Second World War.

What is important to know

It is amazing that the Americans decided to express their Nazi views precisely on VKontakte - social networks, for posts in which, even with the indirect mention of Nazism, the Russians receive real terms. For example, in 2018, the Tuvan journalist Oum Dongak was detained for archival military records where the swastika is visible - for this she was charged with the propaganda of Nazism (Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). Under the photographs there was a text of an anti -fascist nature. In Russia, a person was judged even for a frame from the 1998 film “American History X”, where the main character of Skinhead (actor Edward Norton plays it), with a swastika packed on his chest, throws his hands to his sides and smiles.

Bellingcat notes that the American Natsi, most likely, most likely independently open Facebook and VKontakte as a platform for their views - and quickly learn to disguise themselves so as not to fall under an automatic ban. That is why the humans-man will remain indispensable for a long time.

What's next

The Bell turned to the press service of VKontakte for a comment. The social network stated that "expresses complete intolerance to calls for violence, extremism and any materials that promote discrimination on racial, national or other symptom." After the request of The Bell, the administration blocked the pages indicated in the article that violate the rules, and also asked to report such materials with the “complain” button.

“Not a single complaint received the profiles indicated in the material - otherwise they would be promptly blocked. According to the results of users' complaints and proactive monitoring, we remove hundreds of thousands of content units every month and block thousands of profiles for propaganda of violence, cruelty and the spread of shocking content on our platform. Regardless of the resident of which country spreads it. We will conduct an additional verification of profiles and communities for unlawful content. ”

VKontakte press service