Imgur blocks UK users after regulator threatens fine over child data use

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨BrikoX@lemmy.zip⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.zip⁩

https://www.neowin.net/news/imgur-blocks-uk-users-after-regulator-threatens-fine-over-child-data-use/

Imgur is one of the world’s largest image-sharing communities, originally created in 2009 by Alan Schaaf as a gift to Reddit users. The service grew into a massive platform, boasting over 60 billion memes, GIFs, and images viewed by its 150 million monthly users. Now, it has pulled out of the UK following a warning of potential fines from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Users in the region trying to access the site are met with the error message: Content not available in your region.

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Demigodrick@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
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It’s very annoying.

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- thr0w4w4y2@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Nowhere near as annoying as when you turn on your VPN to get “imgur is over capacity” for half the posts on lemmy.
  
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  - FishFace@lemmy.world ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    The bullshit annoys me nearly as much as the regulatory overreach. Imgur isn’t over capacity; my connection is being throttled due to its IP range.
    
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FishFace@lemmy.world ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Imgur was my daily time-waste app. It has way more content than Lemmy and the memes are fresher (sorry).

I have a self-hosted VPN but its IP range is heavily throttled/blocked by many placces making it of little practical use. Also it is in a country which has also implemented fairly draconian age-check laws.

It seems to me that this age-related stuff could always have been implemented as a layer alongside HTTP(S) which declares whether the user is 18+. The legal aspect of it could be to force sites to comply with that declaration and block mature content to users who don’t declare it. Locked-down devices for children would not be able to declare the user is >18, but adults’ devices would. (Of course it would be bypassable, but what isn’t)

The remaining issue is catching sex ed in the 18+ net. However I don’t think that can be technologically be separated from porn, and it does seem likely that extremely easy access to porn (and content promoting suicide or violence or anorexia or…) for children is a bad thing.

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- BrikoX@lemmy.zip ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Privacy issues could be mitigated and to the specific “issue” of children and teenagers accessing adult content basic parenting and conversation would have a bigger impact than trying to forbid it. How has that worked out historically with alcohol or smoking?
  
  By UKs definitions in OSA once considered family shows like Dancing with the Stars and other entertainment productions could be banned. Sexualized content is everywhere in real life, internet just mirrors it, not creates it.
  
  The fundamental issue with age verification is censorship. Once framework is created it can be applied to any other content someone deems you shouldn’t access. What is legal today can be illegal tomorrow.
  
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  - FishFace@lemmy.world ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    I don’t think it’s unreasonable to have both. Alcohol and tobacco should not be freely available to children while relying instead on “conversation”.
    
    UK law already allows blocking websites; the technical means is there. So I don’t know what you think the increased risk of censorship down the line actually is.
    
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