I’m not one who typically rails agains the Nanny State, but this is getting ridiculous:
From September 30, 2025, access to Imgur from the United Kingdom is no longer available. UK users will not be able to log in, view content, or upload images. Imgur content embedded on third-party sites will not display for UK users.
I assume this is due to the UK Online Safety Act even though it’s not explicitly referenced in the announcement. It’s now up to all of us to raise other people’s children because they can’t be trusted to do it themselves. The internet has fully become a corporate sponsored, government controlled wasteland. I guess it was inevitable.
Yes, the UK Online Safety Act is the issue. I believe, like some porn sites, they’re opting out of certain regions rather than dealing with age verifications. Now all the UK kids will be safe from memes and dirty pictures since they won’t be able to find them anywhere else on the internet.
One big side effect of this is that if you’re in the UK, in addition to not being able to access imgur’s website, you also won’t see images that are hotlinked on other sites. People in the UK are getting broken image links on reddit, they can’t play games on Sporcle and I’m sure there’s million other sites scrambling to find a new place to put their pictures.
I’m guessing that if any of or UK dopers go through the License Plate or Most Interesting Car threads, they’ll be seeing a lot of these instead:
It feels weird being left out. There are multiple threads here on the Dope with the purple ‘content not available’ box.
I’ve been using Imgur for a long time. It’s simple and quick. I guess writing off an entity with a population of 70 million is no big deal. It’s too bad the UK isn’t part of some larger, more influential union.
That’s been a problem for Steam Workshop mods. Screenshots and infographics that are hosted on Imgur don’t work for UK citizens.
In this case, I’d say the opposite. It’s better that the UK cannot force Imgur to comply with its idiotic policy. The more annoyance this causes UK residents, the more likely it is the government will be forced to abandon this idiocy.
No, aside from making sure it’s on and orange. If that doesn’t work, it’s probably not connecting you to a node outside the UK (and you can’t force it to, unfortunately). Sorry.
Other VPNs might though. I used to use TunnelBear back in the day, but not sure who is good now…
Apparently Imgur blocks a lot of VPNs, but not all. I can access it with the paid version of Proton VPN, so I would assume the free version would also work.
And .. it worked !
Now using Proton free VPN. Connected via a server in the Netherlands.
And I can see imgur images.
Sorted, job done.
Cheers @Reply and @DCTrekkie
