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PSA: Stop using Imgur for now (lemmy.world)
submitted 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) by Armand1@lemmy.world to c/lemmyshitpost@lemmy.world
66 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The above image is all us folks in the UK see when you do, and if we try to use a VPN + incognito, we get this:

403 means forbidden, so the message is disingenuous.

They must have put some effort into block lists for VPN servers. Even if it works for some of us, it's not worth it.

For more information on this, see this article: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gzxv5gy3qo

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[-] carotte 11 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

so what you say is, we have a means to post things in such a way the british can’t see them… 🧐 /j

Image of a Union Jack burning, superimposed with the text "imagine being british lol"

[-] anas@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago

wait am I british o.O

[-] carotte 3 points 1 hour ago

sorry you had to find out this way 😔

[-] carotte 3 points 8 hours ago

wait it doesn't work for me either

[-] xorollo@leminal.space 1 points 4 minutes ago

I'm a Yankee?!

[-] falseWhite@lemmy.world 18 points 10 hours ago

"both the ICO and Ofcom - the media regulator enforcing the Online Safety Act - said Imgur suspending access for UK users had been its own "commercial decision"

They're just trying to avoid getting fined by the UK.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gzxv5gy3qo

[-] jenesaisquoi@feddit.org 36 points 11 hours ago

People in the UK should vote for non-insane representatives, that would be more helpful

[-] essell@lemmy.world 11 points 10 hours ago

Still waiting on that option 😟

Actually.. If every voted libdem that might work

[-] jenesaisquoi@feddit.org 2 points 9 hours ago

Ah yes, more power to the rich, that ought to fix it

[-] essell@lemmy.world 5 points 9 hours ago

You got Better option?

I love the Greens and their current direction, but they're at the point where they're saying unworkable things to get left wing support, knowing they'll never have to follow through because they won't win enough power.

[-] jenesaisquoi@feddit.org 3 points 9 hours ago

I'm not familiar with UK parties to be honest, outside of Labour, the two make-rich-people-richer parties and the insanity party I don't even know which parties there are. If I were British I'd vote for the leftmost and most environmentally friendly party I could find. If that is the Greens then that sounds good to me

[-] essell@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago

Well, me too.

Sadly they're a long long way from any real power.

[-] jenesaisquoi@feddit.org 1 points 8 hours ago

That's probably keeping many likeminded people from voting for them. A result of the deeply unfair FPTP voting system. In my country we long ago had a similar system, it resulted in a single party state, until it was reformed to a proportional system.

[-] essell@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago

That would definitely increase both voting and representation for the Greens, yes.

Tactical voting is a big thing in the UK to mitigate some of the imbalance of the FPTP system, along with informal electoral pacts between parties.

[-] jenesaisquoi@feddit.org 2 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Our proportional system isn't bad, but I think Australia's ranked choice voting is the best. In my country it's still possible to waste a vote because the party didn't get a single seat. In Australia this never happens. They also make it mandatory to vote, which I want for my country too.

[-] maniel@sopuli.xyz 13 points 10 hours ago

should be: 451 Unavailable For Legal Reasons

[-] falseWhite@lemmy.world 7 points 10 hours ago

It's not due to legal reasons though. They just decided to exit UK, because they're trying to avoid paying fines for previous infringements.

[-] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 7 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

It's not due to legal reasons though. They just decided to exit UK, because they're trying to avoid paying fines for previous infringements.

What previous infringements?

[-] falseWhite@lemmy.world 6 points 9 hours ago

"The ICO launched its investigation into Imgur in March - saying it would probe whether the companies were complying with both the UK's data protection laws, and the children's code.".

Just do some research dude

[-] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 6 points 9 hours ago

it would probe whether the companies were complying with both the UK's data protection laws, and the children's code

So it was for legal reasons. Wow, such surprise.

Just do some research dude

Could you not tell that I wasn't seriously questioning what the infringements were, and was poking fun at your comment that it wasn't for legal reasons?

[-] falseWhite@lemmy.world 3 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Nobody forced them to quit the UK, there are no laws saying they can't operate in the UK. So what legal reasons?

[-] Sonotsugipaa@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 8 hours ago
[-] ConstantPain@lemmy.world 6 points 9 hours ago

As a brazilian, I've been having all sorts of issues with media being geolocked on Lemmy. I feel like the platform is becoming increasingly hostile to me.

[-] Blackfeathr@lemmy.world 17 points 12 hours ago

Imgur has been shitty for years at this point. They kept fucking with the UI when all I wanted to do was upload images and share the link. They should have stayed in their lane, not try to reinvent their platform as social media. Then their wholesale blocking of VPN traffic? Tired of that nonsense. I use imgbb now.

[-] vateso5074@lemmy.world 5 points 9 hours ago

I will say I don't like the direction imgur went, but to play devil's advocate, I don't think there was any way around it.

The problem is that being an image host used by millions of users is incredibly expensive, and between needing to pay for the infrastructure, content moderators, and (in this case) regulatory compliance, it all adds up.

The only income model they have is ads, which is why they needed to re-tool the UI to hinder users' ability to direct share images, and converting it to a more social media type of format keeps users on the site so they can cycle in more ads for more revenue.

An ideal internet would not need to rely on ad money to work, but I'm struggling to think of what else could be done at the scale imgur operates, as donation models can barely even keep Lemmy instances above water. If ad money wasn't a thing, would sites like imgur be able to exist? Maybe they shouldn't, I don't know.

[-] Zomg@piefed.world 11 points 12 hours ago

Yeah I've had this issue when using Mullvad. Definitely a VPN specific issue.

[-] Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 9 points 12 hours ago

That sounds like a you problem, sorry.

I feel like making some memes mocking the UK and posting them there now.

[-] Armand1@lemmy.world 10 points 12 hours ago

Victim blaming much? We didn't ask for this. In fact, we specifically asked not for this. Same as how most US folk didn't ask for a dictator to run their country and making fun of them for living in a dystopia is a bit tasteless.

It's not a big huge deal, sure, but I also think it's not a big ask for posters to do things differently.

[-] jenesaisquoi@feddit.org 4 points 11 hours ago

We didn’t ask for this

The UK is a democratic country. The electorate saw fit to put insane greedy cunts with sociopathic traits in power. Also to leave the EU, lol

Fight within your political system, while you still have one, don't work around its effects.

[-] BootLoop@sh.itjust.works 1 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

But Trump got the most votes. If they didn't want a dictator in their country they shuldn't have voted for it.

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[-] remon@ani.social 18 points 15 hours ago

Not really a shit post.

Sucks for the UK.

Works fine with a VPN for me.

[-] Armand1@lemmy.world 9 points 14 hours ago

I put it on here because it's one of the communities that posts the most photos and I've seen a few Imgur embeds posted here in the last day or two. Feel free to forward to any other channel.

As for it working for you, yeah I suspect they have some IP ban lists, and it definitely won't cover every VPN, but I don't think it's reasonable to ask someone to use a different VPN to see your post. Not that you were necessarily implying that.

[-] remon@ani.social 5 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

I just don't see why we should boycott imgur because of something the UK government did to them.

[-] Anomnomnomaly@lemmy.org 6 points 13 hours ago

You're not being asked to, the UK govt hasn't done anything to them... they did this to themselves by failing to do anything about age verification long before the online safety act came in recently. This is about their failings over the prior years to do basic age checks that have been common on the internet for decades now... going dark in the UK doesn't affect the ongoing investigations or the fines that will be imposed... they're basically throwing their toys out of the pram and shouting LALALALALALALALA we can't hear you anymore.

Imgur had gone to dogshit anyway, it's no real loss and the new owners keep making it worse and after the last round of protests from users, went on a mass banning and censorship campaign to further alienate and anger the users they desperately need to shove an ever increasing amount of ads too.

Blame the right people... the greedy, ignorant techbros who want to extract every ounce of ad revenue they can to line their own pockets at the expense of killing the product they bought.

[-] remon@ani.social 5 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

they did this to themselves by failing to do anything about age verification long before the online safety act came in recently

Good. They shouldn't. Online age verification is an authoritarian scam.

[-] FishFace@lemmy.world 6 points 13 hours ago

What they are being fined for (potentially) is not asking for users' age during account creation. Not whatever you think (in spite of op being clear)

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[-] gkaklas@lemmy.zip 8 points 13 hours ago

I've been wondering about this for a while, what do people recommend for FOSS imgur alternatives (or just simple image hosting)? 🤔

(Of course the UK should just allow free access to information, but I would still prefer to be able to use something FOSS anyway)

[-] Armand1@lemmy.world 7 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

For Lemmy I think you can just upload directly, which is what I do. More generally I'm not sure.

There are a million services like this but I doubt many are FOSS as there are significant coats involved in large-scale image hosting.

[-] aeternum 1 points 9 hours ago

What kind of coats? I like coats

[-] Armand1@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago

I think a significant coat would have to be either a trenchcoat or one with a huge fur collar.

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[-] moseschrute@lemmy.world 3 points 10 hours ago

I also see this and I’m not in the UK.

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this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2025
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