Inclined to agree with you that this whole situation is kind of shit.
@berniesanders may not be the most popular power user on the platform but he's never done anything wrong to me and he seems stand up enough in regards to what he feels is right to protect the platform from garbage.
If they did indeed get permission and the users supplied photos and agree'd to be in the competition.. It's still kind of stupid in my opinion. But would be far less crappy than how it looks now.