Imgur, one of the biggest image hosting sites, has recently blocked the UK.

There is some confusion about this; the recently introduced Online Safety Act (OSA) is taking some blame as it creates a hostile environment for websites serving UK customers by introducing legal liability for website operators.

The OSA as a piece of legislation is absolutely bananas. It threatens any website operator with prison if they fail to moderate content on their website to a degree that is unreasonable for smaller websites, which has led to forums being shut down because the owner doesn't want to take the risk. It further centralises power on the web into the hands of large (and usually) American tech firms, because they are the ones who can most afford to ensure they are compliant. In simple terms, the Online Safety Act is a bad piece of legislation because it makes the world a worse place.

This is all good news for Imgur's Public Relations department, because, contrary to popular assumption, their blocking of the UK has nothing to do with the OSA. Imgur's problem is that they are selling children's data to advertisers, and this is against data protection laws. Imgur is an American tech firm that makes money by spying on people, in this case children.

It is not helpful to conflate opposition to the OSA with Imgur's predicament here. The OSA makes the world a worse place, but so does Imgur's behaviour.