Posting images hosted on external hosting.

[audio_tony]

Now that the UK has revised the 'online safety act', they (the GOVT.) have tried to force overseas companies to enforce age verification, many of which have refused to do so.

As a result, two UK bodies have tried to sue these companies, and one (4chan I believe) simply stuck a finger up at them, however Imgur has resorted to blocking all UK IP addresses.

This has resulted in quite a few posts with broken images, replaced with a placeholder "Content not viewable in your region".

Now, if anyone remembers the Photobucket debacle, when they removed their free hosting and started charging - it broke forum images everywhere.

As a result, at least one Forum I frequent banned images hosted externally (I think they were just replaced with a message).

Now, I know I could use a VPN, however I have no desire to mess around with VPNs just so I can get (some) images to display.

This site has built in image hosting, would it not be a good idea to enforce that?

Thinking ahead - if there was a change of hosting policy at Imgur, there would be many, many posts with broken / missing images, which would ruin the forum.

 

[respice finem]

There is no cloud, just other people's computers strikes again.
Having only own storage is more practical, for sure. Can bear some copyright issues though...

BTW: A good VPN isn't bad, I got NordVPN, works very well with Linux. Helps against "would be imperators" of all sorts

 

[Timcognito]

This is kind of surprising. With all the touting about AI's super abilities it seems an AI program could knock down 95+% of objectionable content written or visual but maybe kill some reasonable content along the way.

 

[somebodyelse]

This is kind of surprising. With all the touting about AI's super abilities it seems an AI program could knock down 95+% of objectionable content written or visual but maybe kill some reasonable content along the way.

Where does AI come into this?

 

[Timcognito]

If they use Al to review CAT scans better than humans it can certainly find objectionable visual material and language in images instantaneously.

 

[somebodyelse]

If they use Al to review CAT scans better than humans it can certainly find objectionable visual material and language in images instantaneously.

And how exactly is that related to age verification procedures for children, and how the company uses their personal information?

 

[Timcognito]

how the company uses their personal information?

I don't see that in OP. I guess it is easier to block a whole site than age inappropriate content. How is age verification implemented and policed and how effective is it?

 

[somebodyelse]

I don't see that in OP. I guess it is easier to block a whole site than age inappropriate content. How is age verification implemented and policed and how effective is it?

Imgur are blocking their own site if they think the request comes from the UK. It's only peripherally about age-inappropriate content

The law doesn't specify how age verification is to be implemented - it just says it should be effective and leaves the details up to the implementer. It's a well intentioned but ridiculous law that's caused both children and adults to resort to VPNs and other workarounds to sidestep its effects - mostly a load of sites with content that's not considered suitable for children now demanding some combination of accounts, ID, access to webcam so an AI can estimate your age, etc. It's all rather fuzzy and undefined, which is one reason companies don't like it - there's no certainty that the measures you've taken will be judged good enough.

More details are a quick web search away, but here's a taster:

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/what-imgu...en-blackout-memes-gifs-online-culture-1745931
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gzxv5gy3qo
https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/01/imgur_exits_uk/
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/ico-imgurs-uk-prevent-regulatory/

 

[amirm]

Fair amount of content on ASR is locally hosted. For this reason, we don't have the big problem people had years ago with photobucket.