I use Imgur to host many of the images on this very image-heavy site. Thanks to Ofcom
it is now unavailable in the UK. The only way around this is to use a VPN* or move out of the country. Whatever works for you.
This one is on purpose.Posts from the last 3-4 years are the most affected; prior to that I was using NACF server space exclusively. Said space being at a premium (it didn't help that I favoured higher resolutions),
my fix is to add archive links to the top of pages as I get around to them. Clunky and sad, but better than nothing. Note that videos don't play and spoilers don't work on archived pages.
*For us cheapskates, "Opera includes a free, unlimited, no-log browser VPN service that you can enable in the browser's settings, though it functions as a proxy rather than a full-fledged VPN and only encrypts traffic within the browser itself. To enable it, go to Settings (or Preferences on Mac), navigate to Privacy & security, and then click the Enable VPN switch. A blue badge in the address bar indicates the VPN is active, and you can click it to turn the VPN on/off, view data usage, and change your virtual location."
Auntie wakes up:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gzxv5gy3qoSee also:
https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/media-centre/news-and-blogs/2025/09/statement-update-on-imgur-investigation/"A commercial decision" to avoid a fine by a government agency attempting to police the entire web is one way of putting it.
"Use of children's personal data" sounds bad, right? I may be wrong, but I think it's down to Imgur not insisting on identity checks. Not sure how that's supposed to work in this case tbh.
https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1numnyv/comment/nh2m8ie/A lot of businesses don't accept direct file transfers and instead use imgur image hosting for receiving images from customers, so this is a quiet but significant hit. My most recent workplace requests imgur link uploads when handling moderation requests and user queries.
Wiki sites and other forums often rely on imgur linkage for hosting and are now finding their UK pages are ruined.
A lot of companies also 'offshored' their support to Discord and mandate imgur link usage rather than direct file posting there. A neighbouring company near us just got hit by this. No underselling the headache this is causing.
PS. I've broken down and started replacing purple boxes with lower res images on selected pages. Server space currently at 92.5%...
