Imgur blocked in the UK

[realemil]

Not sure whether this warrants a thread on it's own, but couldn't find an appropriate thread for it.

Imgur has been blocked in the UK, they haven't confirmed why, but it's extremely likely due to the Online Safety Act.

The error when visiting reads:

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

Various people have reached out to Imgur and they've responded that the website is blocked for users in the UK.

If it is due to the OSA, clearly Imgur decided it's cheaper to block the entire UK with no warning instead of verifying IDs.

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

I'm not sure what people expected the OSA to achieve because the results so far seem to be somewhat mixed. For example it appears dedicated adult content sites have responded in one of three different ways: full compliance with age verification, unwillingness to fully comply so have simply blocked access from the UK, and complete refusal to comply continuing as before. In the latter cases presumably OFCOM will eventually persuade them to fall in line rather than go through the legal process needed to levy fines.

The issue for Imgur, as with the social media channels, is that the appearance of adult content is just a tiny part of their overall content so age verification is a "nuisance" to them which they would prefer to avoid.

And of course using a VPN circumvents the OSA completely. But hey, at least the politicians did something.

 

[JohnMcL7]

Apparently ICO are going to fine them:

Popular Image Sharing Site Imgur.com Blocks Access to UK Visitors UPDATE3

The popular online image sharing website Imgur.com, which was first founded in 2009 and has been widely used to host viral images, short videos and memes that c

www.ispreview.co.uk

It's frustrating because of course all the hotlinked images in forum threads and similar now no longer work but I don't blame Imgur for not wasting their time on this nonsense and instead just blocking the UK instead.

 

[realemil]

Apparently ICO are going to fine them:

Turns out that it's not to do with the Online Safety Act, but instead how they store data. I imagine that the OSA however, partly pushed them into blocking the UK (alongside this)

Investigations announced into how social media and video sharing platforms use UK children’s personal information

ICO investigating how TikTok uses 13–17-year-olds' personal information to make recommendations to them. Regulator also announces it is investigating how Reddit and Imgur assess the age of their child UK users

ico.org.uk

Statement: Update on Imgur investigation

ico.org.uk