The above image is all us folk 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

    • falseWhite@lemmy.world
      0·
      12 days 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.worldEnglish
        0·
        12 days 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
          0·
          12 days 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.worldEnglish
            0·
            12 days 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?

  • ᓚᘏᗢ@piefed.socialEnglish
    0·
    13 days ago

    Why? I don’t post stuff so I don’t really care either way, but free vpns are so easy to find and use and the paid options aren’t that expensive either.

    • Anomnomnomaly@lemmy.org
      0·
      12 days ago

      Let’s give this classic poem a tweak shall we…

      First they came for the Communists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Communist

      Then they came for the Socialists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Socialist

      Then they came for the trans community (The UK is currently here) And I did not speak out Because I was not trans

      Then they came for all people of colour (The USA is now here) And I did not speak out Because I was not a person of colour

      Then they came for me And there was no one left To speak out for me

      Not caring because it doesn’t directly affect you is how you end up on this road to fascism to begin with. It’s why there have been thousands of arrests of innocent people in the UK for simply protesting about a ban on a group of people who threw paint on some RAF planes and vandalised some genocide supporting israeli weapons manufacturer… because some people do care about others, because they have compassion and a conscience.

      If the UK goes ahead with plans to ban protests entirely as they saying… those numbers will increase because it won’t stop the people and the numbers continue to grow and if you try to stamp it out, there will only be one way it ends… with state authorised violence and death against people protesting the killing of innocent civilians.

      That’s the road you are on with that attitude, and then you’ll be screaming that last line and playing the victim.

  • IninewCrow@lemmy.caEnglish
    0·
    13 days ago

    I noticed with some basic testing with VPNs that a PC running Linux and a VPN is fairly obscured with no DNS or IP leaks. But when doing the same with an android phone, even with a good VPN, the browser still passes unique identifiers of the phone.

    So I’m thinking the ones who say they can still use imgur are probably accessing it via a PC and not a phone.

  • Anomnomnomaly@lemmy.org
    0·
    13 days ago

    It’s been dying for a long time, the vpn blocking started ages ago and the UK block entirely was recent as they’re facing massive fines in the UK… nothing to do with the online safety act that recently came into effect… but due to an ongoing investigation over imgurs failure to do basic age checks at all… and blocking the UK is tantamount to them throwing their toys out of the pram and going LALALALALALALA we can’t hear you now. It won’t affect the investigations and fines over the years of failings prior to that.

    After the last wave of protests over the shitty new owners and their repeated firings of staff and the degredation of the service… they went on a mass banning and censorship spree and further alienated the users. I can’t imagine there are that many left there now.

    Not worth the effort trying to get around it… there are alternatives that are actually better.

    • Anomnomnomaly@lemmy.org
      0·
      12 days ago

      No, it’s because imgur has refused to conduct the simple ‘are you over the age of XX’ when people create accounts, which is required by law… there’s no verification of anything involved. Just a tick the box exercise… they couldn’t even be bothered to do that and that’s why they’re being investigated and are facing massive fines for years of refusal to do what every other site has done for probably 2 decades now… It’s got nothing to do with the draconian online safety act that was recently brought in… it’s imgur throwing their toys out of the pram and screaming ‘LALALALALALALA’ we can’t hear you now. it will have zero effect on the investigation and fines for their previous failings to follow the law… it’s literally cutting of their nose to spite their face.

    • FishFace@lemmy.world
      0·
      13 days ago

      Probably not directly, but we don’t know because Imgur has unprofessionally decided to return an incorrect raw JSON error message instead of explaining the block.

      There is a message from the ICO noting the block and that it was considering fining them for failing to take user reported age as part of account creation. This is different from the OSA age verification

  • gkak.laₛ@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    13 days 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.worldOP
      0·
      13 days ago

      For Lenny 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.

    • Chozo@fedia.io
      0·
      12 days ago

      I don’t believe it’s FOSS, but Catbox is very simple and allows you to link directly to images/videos that you upload, with no ads and no login required.

      • Axolotl_cpp@lemmy.ml
        0·
        12 days ago

        Changing DNS should solve it since Italian ISPs block things only on a DNS level, i had the same problem for fitgirl and changing DNS solved it

  • abbiistabbii@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    0·
    11 days ago

    Fucking hell. As someone in the UK who used Imgur, this sucks. Like fuck sake, I’m being fucked by the OSA and the reaction to the OSA.

  • Zomg@piefed.worldEnglish
    0·
    13 days ago

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

    • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      12 days ago

      My VPN is custom and they block me. How can they tell the traffic is being routed via VPN? I should know this, can’t quite remember how that works.

  • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    12 days ago

    This doesn’t seem like it’s Imgur’s fault for trying to avoid prison. Perhaps more fire is needed in your local MP’s home?

    • HereIAm@lemmy.world
      0·
      12 days ago

      Them blocking VPNs is a bit much though. At that point I don’t feel like it’s their responsibility.

  • sol6_vi@lemmy.makearmy.io
    0·
    12 days ago

    If anyone wants to selfhost their own replacement I just spun up picsur a couple months ago and highly recommend it. Dead simple and lightweight.

    • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
      0·
      12 days ago

      How does that handle the initial flood of requests when every federated instance asks for a freshly posted image all at the same time? Or is that a smaller problem than I am imagining?

      • sol6_vi@lemmy.makearmy.io
        0·
        12 days ago

        All of my federated stuff has run smoothly with that kinda stuff but I don’t think picsur is fed? Is it? 👀 If it is I gotta check that out lol. Mine is isolated. Just use it to dump photos and get quick links

        • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
          0·
          11 days ago

          I could have been more clear, I meant when you post a link to your self-hosted image to lemmy, and all the various federated lemmy instances ask for it all at once. Sounds to me like it’s not an issue at all :)

    • Jeena@piefed.jeena.netEnglish
      0·
      13 days ago

      I do, that’s the only one I can remember which I can embed easily here.

      What are the alternatives? I wish I could just upload images for comments in PieFed.

      • REDACTED@infosec.pubEnglish
        0·
        12 days ago

        I’m using Boost for Lemmy and I never questioned how it works, but I can just add images here straight from my gallery.

          • REDACTED@infosec.pubEnglish
            0·
            11 days ago

            It doesn’t matter, it’s a clone with same functionality. There are users below uploading the same way I did and it uploads on their instance (piefed).

            Realistically it’s just your front end lacking image upload function, but there is back-end for it.

      • KoboldCoterie@pawb.socialEnglish
        0·
        13 days ago

        Catbox is basically what Imgur used to be before it went to absolute shit. You upload images, you can link to them. That’s it. You don’t need to create an account, but if you do, you can see everything you’ve uploaded. It’s free. Not really sure what more you can ask for in an image host.

          • gigachad@piefed.socialEnglish
            0·
            12 days ago

            Interesting, I am using the voyager mobile app. Does that mean the functionality is there but the PieFed frontend hasn’t integrated it?

            • Jeena@piefed.jeena.netEnglish
              0·
              12 days ago

              That is interesting, I just checked and your image is indeed hosted by PieFed itself and not by any external service like I assumed that the 3rd party apps would implement as a workaround.

      • Armand1@lemmy.worldOP
        0·
        13 days ago

        I just upload directly to the instance, at least that’s what I think I’m doing. My app lets me do that (Boost).

        • hereiamagain@sh.itjust.works
          0·
          12 days ago

          I’m on boost too. Let’s find out, here’s a picture uploaded using the built in function.

          Well I’ll be darned, I thought it was using imgur, but I guess it’s straight to the instance. Neat.

  • The Velour Fog @lemmy.world
    0·
    13 days 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
      0·
      12 days 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.

      • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        12 days ago

        Always wondered how Imgur stayed afloat in the first place. As to people whining about ads, yeah I block everything I can, but I’m not about to bitch about Imgur providing me a free service and sending ads.

        Like you, I don’t see a way around it. Sites like Imgur have to be provided by private enterprise, and that requires funding. Can’t see how a subscription model works, people simply wouldn’t pay.

        God forbid the government fund any of it. Look how the Brit and American politicians are fucking up sites that aren’t even government! And don’t start me on what American government sites are deleting and displaying.

        • The_Decryptor@aussie.zoneEnglish
          0·
          11 days ago

          There’s 2 ways to make money off sites like Imgur, charge for subscriptions with extra features, or boast about your user numbers and views and get bought by a company that wants to sell ad space.

          Imgur did both.

    • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      12 days ago

      And it’s not just known IPs from commercial providers. I rolled my own OpenVPN server on a Digital Ocean droplet. BLOCKED.

      They kicked me to the new layout which I abhor, rather not use the site at all. Took me 10-minutes to find the non-obvious place they hid the option to roll it back.