Original article ISPreview UK:Read More
The popular online image sharing website Imgur.com, which was first founded in 2009 and has been widely used to host viral images, short videos and memes that can be linked to from other sites, appears as if it may have responded to a recent Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) investigation by blocking UK IP (Internet Protocol) addresses.
People on UK internet connections who try to visit the website, or who wish to view imgur.com hosted images via other websites (it’s common practice to upload and share images in this way), are instead being shown a generic error message: “Content not available in your region“. This typically indicates that the website itself has implemented a geo-block against the country.
The strong suspicion being expressed online is that this could be a response to the new Online Safety Act (OSA) and its requirements for websites to implement “effective age checks“ on visitors (here). The measure is designed to prevent children from encountering online porn and protect them from other harmful content, but it’s also something that has not been universally popular (here).
One of the issues is that Ofcom and the government have been trying to apply this in an extraterritorial fashion to websites based and hosted in other countries. Sites that don’t comply could potentially face fines or be blocked by UK internet providers (broadband and mobile). Suffice to say that some sites have been opting to simply block UK visitors instead of going through the complex and costly hassle of adopting another country’s rules.
However, it now seems more likely that Imgur’s decision is a direct reaction to a recent investigation by the ICO, which we’ll come back to in a moment.
An Ofcom spokesperson told ISPreview:
“Imgur’s decision to restrict access in the UK is a commercial decision taken by the company and not a result of any action taken by Ofcom. It has not stated the reasons for its decision. Other services run by MediaLab remain available in the UK – such as Kik messenger, which has implemented age assurance to comply with the Online Safety Act.”
So far as we can tell, imgur.com does not appear to have issued any prior notice of their intent to adopt such a measure, which will be a breaking change for a lot of online UK content that relied on the image sharing service. However, it may not have helped when, during October last year, imgur.com decided to loosen its restrictions on memes and photos involving adult humour (PC Mag), although they don’t allow nudity / porn.
We should point out that imgur.com has in the past been the subject of several blocks imposed by broadband ISPs too (e.g. here and here), albeit usually by accident due to faulty content filtering. But crucially Imgur.com is currently being investigated by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for its approach to assessing the age of child users in the UK (here).
The ICO previously said their investigations into Imgur were “considering how the platforms use UK children’s personal information and their use of age assurance measures … Age assurance plays an important role in keeping children, and their personal information, safe online. There are tools or approaches that can help estimate or verify a child’s age, which then allow services to be tailored to their needs or access to be restricted“.
However, the ICO’s investigation is being carried out under data protection law, not the OSA. Admittedly there is crossover between the two regimes when it comes to age assurance (i.e. providers need to comply with both regimes and the two regulators have been co-ordinating on that), but stritcly speaking the ICO’s investigation has nothing to do with the OSA itself.
UPDATE 11:48am
We’ve added a comment from Ofcom above and added some detail on the ICO’s investigation into imgur.com.
UPDATE 12:04pm
The ICO has also issued an update on the aforementioned investigation today (here), which adds some key context. The ICO previously said they had been working closely with Ofcom on this, which has responsibility for enforcing the Online Safety Act, to ensure their efforts are co-ordinated.
Tim Capel, ICO Interim Executive Director – Regulatory Supervision, said:
“We reached our provisional findings on this investigation, and we issued a notice of intent to impose a monetary penalty on MediaLab on 10 September 2025.
Our findings are provisional and the ICO will carefully consider any representations from MediaLab before taking a final decision whether to issue a monetary penalty.
We have been clear that exiting the UK does not allow an organisation to avoid responsibility for any prior infringement of data protection law, and our investigation remains ongoing.
This update has been provided to give clarity on our investigation, and we will not be providing any further detail at this time.
Safeguarding children’s personal information is a key priority for the ICO and our Children’s code strategy outlines our key interventions in this area. Keeping children safe online is the responsibility of the companies offering online services to them and we will continue to hold them to account.”
UPDATE 1:48pm
Imgur.com has updated their help site to include the following statement (this part is still viewable from the UK).
Imgur access in the United Kingdom
From September 30, 2025, access to Imgur from the United Kingdom is no longer available. UK users will not be able to log in, view content, or upload images. Imgur content embedded on third-party sites will not display for UK users.
You can exercise your data protection rights without logging in (for example, to request a copy of your data or deletion) using our Help Center request form.
We may request information to verify your identity and will respond within the time limits set by UK data protection law.
We may continue to process limited personal data where necessary and lawful, for example, to comply with legal obligations and to establish, exercise or defend legal claims. Information about how long we keep data and how we process it is available in our Privacy Policy.
If you have questions, please contact us via our Support request form.
UPDATE 4:05pm
The key part of the ICO’s investigation seemed to have focused on how Imgur failed to ask visitors to declare their age when setting up an account. We’ve clarified above that this investigation took place under data protection law and not the OSA.