How anti-gay groups use ‘Russian Facebook’ to persecute LGBT people
With Sochi under way, the Guardian look at widespread homophobia across VKontakte – and what little is being done to stop it
It is known as the Russian Facebook, and it is the 8th biggest social networking site in the world, with over 239 million registered users and 55 million active daily. It is VKontakte (VK), and it is host to videos of rapes, threats to kill, and the humiliation of gay people.
While the world tunes in to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, hundreds of gay, lesbian, and transgender Russian citizens will be persecuted and attacked; the result of plots formed online by homophobic groups buoyed up by Putin’s anti-gay propaganda laws.
Read more at theguardian.com