The image hosting and sharing platform Imgur has blocked access to users in the United Kingdom. The platform is popular on Reddit and is used to create images and share them online, but after the ban, the shared content is no longer visible to UK consumers.
The move comes just weeks after the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) proposed a penalty after its investigations into how MediaLab (the parent company of Imgur) uses children’s data. However, pulling out of the UK market was the company’s decision.
UK users are already looking for ways to bypass the Imgur block, with services like “NordVPN” seeing peak interest on September 30 based on Google Trends data.
ICO investigation as a potential reason
Some users speculate that Imgur could have blocked access to UK consumers to avoid complying with the duties of child protection, which is required by the Online Safety Act.
It includes the requirement to verify the user’s age on websites that host adult, harmful, or sensitive content.
The ICO has reported that they’re aware of Imgur’s block in the UK and that the decision was exclusively made by the company.
The investigation, launched March 3, 2025, checked for age requests, age verification, account privacy, and geolocation sharing safety measures on the platform and identified possible issues.
Alongside its investigation in March, the ICO found that Imgur did not ask users for their age and did not use age verification techniques when signing up. The platform also didn’t ensure higher levels of privacy for child accounts.
The ICO Interim Executive Director, Tim Capel, said that they had already proposed a penalty.
“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,” he claimed.
However, even with the Imgur ban in the UK, Capel claimed that the company can’t avoid responsibility.
“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,” he said.
No official statement yet
While Imgur hasn’t released a statement for the official reasons for the ban, it came out with a message stating that Imgur won’t be available for UK users from the last day of September.
“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,” the message said.
Imgur informed users about their rights to request copies of their data or delete their accounts under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
VPNs save the day once again
The Imgur block situation poses similarities to other platform blocks that happened due to age verification laws, including Pornhub, due to the rising popularity of VPN usage.
When the UK Online Safety Act, which requires verifying user age on platforms using personal data, went into effect on July 25, 2025, VPN searches saw new heights. Google Trends data showed a roughly 170-180% increase in interest for both “NordVPN” and “Surfshark” terms from July 24 to July 26.
In terms of Imgur, the term “Imgur UK” is already a related breakout query to the “VPN” term, according to data from Google Trends. It came just hours before the platform was blocked.
UK users were quick to express their disappointment in the platform’s decision, either looking for alternatives or trying to bypass the block by getting a VPN.
While some users reported that VPNs don’t seem to work with Imgur, they were quick to find out that it does work, but only when the VPN’s ad-blocking features are disabled.
A quick test showed that connecting to a VPN like NordVPN immediately restored access to Imgur. All it took was connecting to a server in any other country outside the UK.
Although VPNs are the go-to solution for many internet users trying to bypass platform blocks, the issue goes deeper. Users are already expressing their frustration with the Online Safety Act and understand the companies that pull out of the region.
“More sites need to block us [UK users] rather than comply for ordinary people to start getting angry with the implementation of the OSA [Online Safety Act],” a Reddit user claimed.
The UK government has already responded to the “Repeal the Online Safety Act” petition, stating that it has no plans to repeal the Online Safety Act.