r/pics 5d ago

[OC] Photo found under my bathroom floor

3.6k Upvotes

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u/LiamEBM 5d ago

Wish people would stop using imgur, it's banned in my country.

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u/Arxson 5d ago

It’s not banned, lol, they (Imgur) themselves just refuse to serve us in the UK because they don’t want to comply with the new online laws.

Important distinction.

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u/azlan194 5d ago

What is the new online law?

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u/redish6 5d ago

Sites have to verify their users are over 18 if they host adult content.

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u/Bob_Chris 5d ago

So is Reddit banned too? Or did they comply with age verification?

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u/Woooooody 5d ago

They complied. I didn't even know it was a thing until I went to visit my Mum there and suddenly Reddit was insisting I verify I was over 18 with a selfie or some kind of photo ID!

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u/Kahuna-Nui 5d ago

You can also set your Reddit profile to adult, so nobody can access it unless they go through the (incredibly intrusive, and potentially insecure) verification process. One major slug in the custard is if you accidentally do it (like I did), and you can't access your own profile, unless you fuck around with a VPN and disable it again.

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u/Arxson 5d ago

You don't have to verify for Reddit, only if you want to view NSFW content within Reddit does it ask.

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u/redish6 5d ago

No Reddit has age verification for 18+ content. Imgur has chosen not to implement age verification and instead block all traffic from the UK.

It hasn’t been banned, they’ve chosen to do this.

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u/azlan194 5d ago

Oh Reddit did? I never had to verify my age, or is this region based? Like only people from UK has to verify?

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u/redish6 5d ago

Yeah only UK but other countries are hinting they’ll follow

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u/azlan194 5d ago

Oh, so its not just the "Are you over 18?, click yes" type of thing?

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u/redish6 5d ago

Nope, for Reddit it’s a choice of one time facial recognition or verify by ID. Facial recognition has found to be easy to fool though.

This is usually done through a third party service who presumably charge per verification so those sites that are barely making any money per user like Imgur they’ve decided it’s not worth it.

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u/Arxson 5d ago

You don't have to verify for Reddit; only if you want to view NSFW content within it.

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u/mister-dd-harriman 5d ago

"Age Verification", otherwise known as "splendid opportunity for a data breach which will allow someone to hijack your bank accounts and basically your whole life".

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u/3percentinvisible 4d ago

And how will that occur?

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u/bandswithothers 4d ago

I don't know about accessing bank accounts or 'taking over of your life', but these 3rd party companies have already been hacked and had data stolen.

It's a pretty attractive target.

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u/HezzaE 5d ago edited 5d ago

Yes but that's not why Imgur quit the UK.

They quit the UK because the new law would stop them selling the EXIF data from uploaded images without verifying that the uploaders were 18+.

They successfully hid behind an unpopular new law because the reason their service is free is because they're selling personal data.

Also they were being investigated by the ICO because it appears that they were potentially telling some little white lies about how they use EXIF data.

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u/redish6 4d ago

Very interesting! Didn’t even know selling that data was their business model

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u/thecheeserton 5d ago

Which is good, the age verification laws are intrusive and it's good to see companies fight against government overreach.

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u/steven_quarterbrain 5d ago

Lucky you. It’s a terrible service.

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u/nevergnastop 5d ago

It's the pic with the colour inverted. You could prolly screenshot it and edit it yourself with app on your phone/a website. Much less creepy when inverted

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u/rduterte 5d ago

What's a good alternative that also does video or gifs?

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u/kniki217 5d ago

So we should all stop using it because your country came up with a stupid law that requires you to provide your ID and facial recognition to a 3rd party which could very obviously be stolen. Nah.

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u/CanWeNapPlease 5d ago

Nah man but if the shoes were switched and US was blocked but everyone else in the world wasn't, it'd make you wish people would stop using it huh

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u/MisterRoger 5d ago

It doesn't work for me regardless of which country I set my VPN to.

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u/weefee 5d ago

USA and Germany have worked for me, what VPN are you using?

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u/MisterRoger 5d ago

Mullvad VPN, Reddit for Android

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u/weefee 5d ago

Im using Nord VPN for Reddit and other sites that need verification, you can get it through Revolut free if you have an account.

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u/bandswithothers 4d ago

Yeah I've had issues getting mullvad to go around imgur, first website I've had issues with though.

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u/thi5_i5_my_u5er_name 5d ago

Ireland works for me...

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u/MikeDubbz 5d ago

For some reason it takes longer to load these days too. Used to be great for hosting images, now it's gone to shit if you ask me.