Imgur just broke the internet for the UK
Discussion
No doubt as a result of the UK Gov's badly-made and ill-thought-out OSA, we're now seeing the unintended consequences of said terrible legislation.
This morning I had a message that a 'For Sale' ad I have on a hi-fi forum wasn't showing the images, they just said 'Image not available in your region'. Rather than try and comply with the UK legislation, Imgur have decided it's cheaper/easier to just turn off UK users entirely. Imgur is one of the largest image hosting sites and has been around for over a decade. I have loads of pictures that are embedded on loads of sites, none of which are now visible to anyone in the UK. Things like 'how-to' guides, adverts, serious discussion and funny posts.....all now just showing a blank image.
The worst thing is that the Gov are now pretty much forcing people in the UK to have to use a VPN in order to maintain basic internet functionality. And worst of all, people will seek out free VPNs which are an absolute privacy nightmare. The Gov cannot see that they're NOT actually protecting kids, they're simply encouraging them to avoid Government control but in an even more dangerous way.
The ens
ttification of the internet continues.
Annoyingly I can access Imgur via my VPN but for some reason the link to export all my images doesn't work. Imgur also did this out of the blue with no warning or heads-up to UK users that they would be losing access.
This morning I had a message that a 'For Sale' ad I have on a hi-fi forum wasn't showing the images, they just said 'Image not available in your region'. Rather than try and comply with the UK legislation, Imgur have decided it's cheaper/easier to just turn off UK users entirely. Imgur is one of the largest image hosting sites and has been around for over a decade. I have loads of pictures that are embedded on loads of sites, none of which are now visible to anyone in the UK. Things like 'how-to' guides, adverts, serious discussion and funny posts.....all now just showing a blank image.
The worst thing is that the Gov are now pretty much forcing people in the UK to have to use a VPN in order to maintain basic internet functionality. And worst of all, people will seek out free VPNs which are an absolute privacy nightmare. The Gov cannot see that they're NOT actually protecting kids, they're simply encouraging them to avoid Government control but in an even more dangerous way.
The ens

Annoyingly I can access Imgur via my VPN but for some reason the link to export all my images doesn't work. Imgur also did this out of the blue with no warning or heads-up to UK users that they would be losing access.
Edited by Funk on Tuesday 30th September 16:24
Visiting Imgur even states it... yoiu're not wrong, they've just turned it off for us. This is similar to photobucket starting to charge for images. It ruined a lot of historical forums, as images were hosted there many years ago and people forget or pass, so the DIY guides are useless. Just 1 of the knock on effects.
data
error "Content not available in your region."
success false
status 400
data
error "Content not available in your region."
success false
status 400
Yep, started last night.
Just another example of what an incompetent clusterf
k the online safety act is.
This sort of thing was guaranteed to happen as various entities who don't outright need the UK market decide it's more hassle than it's worth to try and comply with the government's ill thought out bulls
t.
Just another example of what an incompetent clusterf

This sort of thing was guaranteed to happen as various entities who don't outright need the UK market decide it's more hassle than it's worth to try and comply with the government's ill thought out bulls

Yeah, but think of the children won't you! 
The government won't give a toss so long as it has the power to track you down should you post something online that it doesn't like, which is the whole point of the legislation. Sold to the public on a lie - as usual, exactly like the even more odious 'digital ID' that they are pushing to 'stop illegal immigrants taking jobs'. Just as much horsecrap.

The government won't give a toss so long as it has the power to track you down should you post something online that it doesn't like, which is the whole point of the legislation. Sold to the public on a lie - as usual, exactly like the even more odious 'digital ID' that they are pushing to 'stop illegal immigrants taking jobs'. Just as much horsecrap.
Actually came to this part of the forum to post exactly this!!
What an utter sh!t show and as said, seems it's easier to just turn the whole of the UK off. Just like when Photobucket got greedy and wanted a silly amount to host photos, this is a royal pain for many. I admit all of my photos are backed up but linked to various forums and now who nothing.
Utterly ill thought out Government crap, although we seem to be seeing a lot of that lately!
What an utter sh!t show and as said, seems it's easier to just turn the whole of the UK off. Just like when Photobucket got greedy and wanted a silly amount to host photos, this is a royal pain for many. I admit all of my photos are backed up but linked to various forums and now who nothing.
Utterly ill thought out Government crap, although we seem to be seeing a lot of that lately!
Info: https://help.imgur.com/hc/en-us/articles/415926652...
They can still f
k off for not giving anyone a heads-up or a chance to prepare for it.
They can still f

Why are the incompetent cretins in government even allowed to make decisions about stuff they're wholly ignorant of, or willfully misunderstand? The internet is no longer a hobby thing - hasn't been for a long time. They wouldn't be allowed to tell engineers how to build a viaduct or nuclear reactor, so what the f
k makes them think they're qualified to make decisions of this importance without understanding the impact?
Just bandying about the f
king idiotic 'but the children' facile arguments does not make it ok in any way, shape or form.
Cretinous performance politics at its worst.
f
k them all.

Just bandying about the f

Cretinous performance politics at its worst.
f

Here's an example of what a nightmare this just caused:
https://ariadnereviews.com/2025/09/20/masterchef-2...
https://ariadnereviews.com/2025/09/30/technical-tu...
It would be impossible for her to rebuild her blog with the right images, hosted elsewhere, inserted in the right places on the correct pages... All that work now rendered useless.
We're seeing it here on PH as well - the 'show us your hifi' thread is now significantly broken and pointless.
Imgur should have at least offered users a way to migrate their photos elsewhere, along with tools to try and assist with replacing the blocked images. But no. Just break things without giving a f
k.
https://ariadnereviews.com/2025/09/20/masterchef-2...
https://ariadnereviews.com/2025/09/30/technical-tu...
It would be impossible for her to rebuild her blog with the right images, hosted elsewhere, inserted in the right places on the correct pages... All that work now rendered useless.
We're seeing it here on PH as well - the 'show us your hifi' thread is now significantly broken and pointless.
Imgur should have at least offered users a way to migrate their photos elsewhere, along with tools to try and assist with replacing the blocked images. But no. Just break things without giving a f

Edited by Funk on Tuesday 30th September 16:51
Funk said:
Info: https://help.imgur.com/hc/en-us/articles/415926652...
They can still f
k off for not giving anyone a heads-up or a chance to prepare for it.
Bit toss, but to an extent, what else can they do.They can still f

And to be fair, forums etc who still rely on 3rd party image hosting sites in 2025 are bonkers. With the forum I administrate we took a very early proactive step to bring image hosting internally to ensure security of images. I cant remember exact timelines, but it was early enough that when Photobucket pulled the plug on hotlinking (2017 according to google) it had not real effect. So maybe ten years before that, two decades ago.
Hosting is cheap.
dhutch said:
Funk said:
Info: https://help.imgur.com/hc/en-us/articles/415926652...
They can still f
k off for not giving anyone a heads-up or a chance to prepare for it.
Bit toss, but to an extent, what else can they do.They can still f

And to be fair, forums etc who still rely on 3rd party image hosting sites in 2025 are bonkers. With the forum I administrate we took a very early proactive step to bring image hosting internally to ensure security of images. I cant remember exact timelines, but it was early enough that when Photobucket pulled the plug on hotlinking (2017 according to google) it had not real effect. So maybe ten years before that, two decades ago.
Hosting is cheap.
The issue here is that the law was written by cretins and worded appallingly with significant overreach built-in. That is now resulting in unintended (but foreseeable) consequences. The real problem is obviously our Government for their s



Edited by Funk on Tuesday 30th September 17:03
Funk said:
But then you move the responsibility for compliance from the image hosting company to you. You'll need to be sure that none of the images you're hosting that others have uploaded have a boob or something visible or the Government's Porn Police will fine you.
To an extent. However we already have a team of moderators who actively and reactively monitor the site and a content report system and a diligent core community of members, so the risk feels manageable at this stage.Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff