The claim: Miss USA is boycotting Miss Universe pageant because of transgender contestant

A July 16 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) claims the winner of the Miss USA pageant is boycotting the global level of the competition.

"Miss USA Boycotts Miss Universe Pageant: “I’m Not Competing Against a Man,'" reads the post.

The user who created the post also shared a link in the comments to a July 16 article published on a website called Laptops Villa.

The post garnered more than 2,000 shares in a day. Similar versions of the claim have been shared on Facebook.

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Our rating: False

The claim originated as satire. Miss USA has not announced a boycott of the Miss Universe pageant.

Claim first appeared on satirical website

Rikkie Valerie Kollé became the first transgender woman to be named Miss Netherlands on July 8, and she could potentially go on to be the first transgender Miss Universe.

The decision has been met with some online criticism, but Miss USA hasn't announced a boycott.

The text in the Laptops Villa article is nearly identical to a July 9 article by the Dunning-Kruger Times, which describes itself as a subsidiary of the America's Last Line of Defense satirical network. The website's "About Us" page says, "Everything on this website is fiction."

Another sign that the article's content is fabricated is the fact that it refers to a woman named Natasha Berkelston, who...

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