UK readers: do you see Edmund Blackadder below? Or just a message about the image being unavailable in your region?
If you are in the UK and see Blackadder, then the chances are you are either using a foreign SIM in a cellular device (causing your browsing traffic to be back-hauled to originate from your non-UK territory) or you are using a VPN service which makes your traffic appear to originate from somewhere other than the UK – whether that is a Corporate one or a personal one.
The UK is, as of 2025-09-30 or thereabouts, blocked from accessing Imgur as a result of fallout from the UK Online Safety Act.
The UK acting on its own rather than as part of a bigger market block is too small to justify some companies altering their systems (and indeed business models) to fit our individual requirements. So in this case, Imgur has decided to simply not support UK access to its services any longer, hence the not-available-in-your-region message. A rational business decision.
There is also the non-trivial matter of those for whom anonymity is necessary for their personal safety. But apparently this isn’t important – because if it was, surely the OSA would take account of it?
If you have been through the age verifications implemented by various sites then you will have probably noticed how you end up having to hand over personal details including identity documentation to third parties contracted to provide the service. What do you know about these third parties? They may well assert that your details are not kept but what assurance do you have of that? None.
I wonder how many more services will choose to bypass the UK? Maybe not many major current players, but quite a lot of startups and new market entrants, I suspect.
Taking back control was always an illusion; a market the size of the EU has real world-class clout. The UK market alone? Far, far less so, except in the minds of certain people.
A fragmented internet is rarely a good thing; North Korea, Great Firewall Of China, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Eritrea, Belarus, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Myanmar (Burma), russia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Bangladesh, Cuba, Vietnam, Turkey, Sudan, Egypt, Uzbekistan. Not much to be jealous of there frankly. These states have actively chosen to heavily restrict their populations’ access to the Internet. But it isn’t a million miles away, consequence-wise, from choosing a path which results in parts of the Internet restricting your access to them.
Who cares about silly old Imgur? Maybe not many people do. But every wedge has a thin end.
We live in interesting times.
Sophie Baskerville 