Imgur, one of the web’s most popular image sharing and hosting platforms, has shut off access to its site to users in the United Kingdom, following a notice of a fine by the country’s data protection watchdog.
According to reports on social media, users attempting to load Imgur from the U.K. are met with an error message that says: “Content not available in your region.”
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in March had launched an investigation into various social media platforms, including Imgur, looking at how they use children’s data and protect the privacy of minors in the country.
The regulator said on Tuesday that it had reached provisional findings in the investigation, and had notified Imgur’s parent company, MediaLab AI, earlier this month that it intended to impose a fine. The regulator said Imgur’s decision to restrict access in the country was a “commercial decision taken by the company.”
“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,” Tim Capel, interim executive director of regulatory supervision at the ICO, said in a statement. “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.”
The ICO said its update was provided to “give clarity on our investigation, and we will not be providing any further detail at this time.”
Imgur and its parent company MediaLab AI did not immediately return a request for comment.
Founded in 2009, Imgur quickly rose to prominence as Reddit’s favored image hosting service, and today has a massive community of its own. The site had more than 195 million visits in August, per Semrush.
