Imgur has blocked the UK

Destination · Tuesday at 07:36

Armageus said:
Its ok though, children will be protected from all manner of memes and random images

This is the odd thing, I thought that imgur banned and removed all adult type images some years ago.
With them removed what is left to block?

unwashed potato! · Tuesday at 07:39

It's very sad as imgur was the best "doom scrolling" app out there, due to not having an algorithm. The images are what the community wanted you to see. And the community is vocal too! What I saw on the front page is the exact same what every other use saw (unless they had filters).

Kenai · Tuesday at 07:44

Destination said:
This is the odd thing, I thought that imgur banned and removed all adult type images some years ago.
With them removed what is left to block?

There is still all of this nonsense to consider and comply with above and beyond just removing adult content

Online Safety Act 2023

www.legislation.gov.uk

For somewhere like Imgur, I can easily imagine a board sitting down and getting about 3 slides into a presentation from their compliance team about 'Complying with the UK OSA' before asking "Isn't it easier to just region block the UK? Let's do that"

You would also assume a lot of that stuff applies to this forum, so lets collectively cross our fingers that whoever is responsible for producing all those risk assessments etc. for here feels like it's actually worth the effort so we don't log on one day to a 'Forum's closed' banner

Firegod · Tuesday at 07:49

Well this sucks. I just started to use this, as mentioned, because img bb and postimage are so unreliable. So now what do we use.

Haggisman · Tuesday at 07:53

South Australia is calling... | Move to South Australia

Kenai said:
There is still all of this nonsense to consider and comply with above and beyond just removing adult content

Online Safety Act 2023

www.legislation.gov.uk

For somewhere like Imgur, I can easily imagine a board sitting down and getting about 3 slides into a presentation from their compliance team about 'Complying with the UK OSA' before asking "Isn't it easier to just region block the UK? Let's do that"

They aren't the first and they sure as hell won't be the last.

A fantastic own goal, and great way to kill off the UK tech industry.

"The Great Firewall of China" wasn't supposed to be something to aspire to!

iron_monkey · Tuesday at 07:54

This is a massive blow to a lot of forums i use.

Feek · Tuesday at 08:06

I spotted this yesterday and it's utterly stupid. imgur don't allow any kind of adult content, no nudity, not even partial nudity so this is a really dumb move on their behalf. It doesn't achieve anything whatsoever.

deviation said:
imgbb.com FTW!

Don't even consider it. Unless you're a paid subscriber, pictures uploaded to imgbb are replaced by a placeholder if you try and hotlink them.

Every image I've posted on the forums for the last ten years or more has been via imgur, they're now stone dead.

Crazy, crazy thing.

ChrisD. · Tuesday at 08:09

This is disastrous for a lot of hobby forums, which are having enough of a hard time as it is due to Facebook.

413x · Tuesday at 08:11

Rroff said:
Personally think all major companies should just straight up block the UK until this part of the act is repealed - I have zero patience with this kind of delusional **** wittry.

Agreed. It's a typical UK political move.
Labour and tories are both classics for doing these ill thought out moves. It's like they simply don't understand or think their measures will be effective. But they are annoyances and nothing more.

413x · Tuesday at 08:12

Raymond Lin said:
VPN is good to look at IMGUR but the point is sharing images with others and it's hard to get everyone else to have VPN.

Exactly this imgur is for sharing. You need the other person to have a VPN. But at this point that might start happening.

Brazo · Tuesday at 08:18

I was wondering why half the internet was blanked out!!

GravyMonster · Tuesday at 08:19

malachi said:
I think the block wasn't meant to happen this way and someone has balls up somewhere.

I wouldn't bet on that. New Imgur owners are a bunch of clowns, and the fact they just region blocked the UK with no advance warning is bang on brand for their idiocy.

malachi · Tuesday at 08:19

This is what happens when you have a bunch of Baby Boomers running the country who have no clue about technology.

Rilot · Tuesday at 08:20

Oh, they've blocked the entire site. Can't even get on the front page.

200sols · Tuesday at 08:22

I'm sure this is somehow protecting the kids :cry:

Feek · Tuesday at 08:23

malachi said:
This is what happens when you have a bunch of idiots running an image hosting site.

Corrected that for you.

Haggisman · Tuesday at 08:33

Feek said:
Corrected that for you.

Is it though?

As @Kenai has pointed out, they've almost certainly looked at the options and decided that just region blocking the UK is easier and cheaper than jumping through the hoops to comply with the OSA or risk multi-million pound fines.

What benefit do they get from operating in the UK vs those costs/risks?

Zefan · Tuesday at 08:37

{"data":{"error":"Content not available in your region."},"success":false,"status":400}

randal · Tuesday at 08:38

Another "win" for the OSB, another tranche of people pushed towards signing up for a VPN service which means another tranche of people obfuscating their traffic and usage patterns.

I do take heart in it though and threads like these give me some hope that something will get done about it, as it's only a matter of time before the disquiet reaches critical mass. Every service that is compromised or impacted brings this ever closer.

Labour are standing in front of an open goal with this one, all they need to do is tap it in. But they won't, because they're terrible.

malachi · Tuesday at 08:40

Feek said:
Corrected that for you.

I don't blame them, it's the UK government who want to back door such a dumb policy to monitor the Internet.

If they left things alone then this BS wouldn't be happening.