Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine • Hacker News Board

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#21

Post by stavros » Tue, Sep 30, 2025, 1:52 PM UTC

kylecazar wrote: post #16

dreamlayers wrote: post #11

How is one country able to fine businesses in other countries? What legal authority or ability do they have to do anything?

If you do business in a country you have to operate under that country's laws and regulations, regardless of where you are registered. Most commonly it's the EU fining American tech for GDPR violations and related privacy shenanigans.

Right, but the UK is saying they'll fine Imgur even after Imgur blocked access. At that point, what tooth does the fine have? "You must pay this fine if you want to, err, nothing I guess"?

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#22

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Sep 30, 2025, 1:55 PM UTC

turblety wrote: post #5

nickslaughter02 wrote: post #4

> Mr Capel said: “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. Block UK access now just in case.

It's clear to me, it's a huge risk for any company to allow access to UK visitors at this stage. All companies should be blocking all UK visitors. It's just too much risk for them to take. The fault is obviously an incompetent and authoritarian UK government, but that's what the UK overlords have agreed.

[deleted]

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#23

Post by bArray » Tue, Sep 30, 2025, 1:56 PM UTC

roenxi wrote: post #9

I suppose this is a serious question - does this mean that in theory HN should ban UK users? Or is HN likely compliant with this law? It is hard to pierce through the Orwellian language in the article (does "safeguarding children’s personal information" mean retaining or deleting the data?).

In theory, HackerNews should be concerned. There is no prevention of children using the site, and potentially "harmful content" could be access either on or through the site. Being an aggregator doesn't seem to be a get-out.

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#24

Post by beardyw » Tue, Sep 30, 2025, 1:56 PM UTC

kylecazar wrote: post #16

dreamlayers wrote: post #11

How is one country able to fine businesses in other countries? What legal authority or ability do they have to do anything?

If you do business in a country you have to operate under that country's laws and regulations, regardless of where you are registered. Most commonly it's the EU fining American tech for GDPR violations and related privacy shenanigans.

Thanks. That needs to be in an HN guide somewhere, along with: online services cost money to run so don't be surprised that they need either fees or advertising.

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#25

Post by yorwba » Tue, Sep 30, 2025, 1:58 PM UTC

stavros wrote: post #21

kylecazar wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you do business in a country you have to operate under that country's laws and regulations, regardless of where you are registered. Most commonly it's the EU fining American tech for GDPR violations and related privacy shenanigans.

Right, but the UK is saying they'll fine Imgur even after Imgur blocked access. At that point, what tooth does the fine have? "You must pay this fine if you want to, err, nothing I guess"?

If Imgur decides they want to make money in the UK after all, and they have an unpaid fine outstanding, that money can be seized to pay off the fine first.

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#26

Post by Yokolos » Tue, Sep 30, 2025, 1:59 PM UTC

stavros wrote: post #21

kylecazar wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you do business in a country you have to operate under that country's laws and regulations, regardless of where you are registered. Most commonly it's the EU fining American tech for GDPR violations and related privacy shenanigans.

Right, but the UK is saying they'll fine Imgur even after Imgur blocked access. At that point, what tooth does the fine have? "You must pay this fine if you want to, err, nothing I guess"?

Honestly, that's the most noteworthy part of this. The EU hasn't pursued any site that just blocks EU access (see any number of US sites than aren't GDPR compliant and I can't access from Europe). The UK is threatening to do something nobody else has really done before. It's crazy, imo, because I can see a whole lot of sites immediately blocking the UK to avoid any potential litigation.

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#27

Post by hayd » Tue, Sep 30, 2025, 2:03 PM UTC

yorwba wrote: post #25

stavros wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, but the UK is saying they'll fine Imgur even after Imgur blocked access. At that point, what tooth does the fine have? "You must pay this fine if you want to, err, nothing I guess"?

If Imgur decides they want to make money in the UK after all, and they have an unpaid fine outstanding, that money can be seized to pay off the fine first.

"make money in the UK"

an oxymoron.

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#28

Post by nickslaughter02 » Tue, Sep 30, 2025, 2:03 PM UTC

stavros wrote: post #21

kylecazar wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you do business in a country you have to operate under that country's laws and regulations, regardless of where you are registered. Most commonly it's the EU fining American tech for GDPR violations and related privacy shenanigans.

Right, but the UK is saying they'll fine Imgur even after Imgur blocked access. At that point, what tooth does the fine have? "You must pay this fine if you want to, err, nothing I guess"?

Pay this fine if you don't want to be arrested when entering the UK? Not that they plan to after this...

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#29

Post by bendigedig » Tue, Sep 30, 2025, 2:03 PM UTC

stavros wrote: post #21

kylecazar wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you do business in a country you have to operate under that country's laws and regulations, regardless of where you are registered. Most commonly it's the EU fining American tech for GDPR violations and related privacy shenanigans.

Right, but the UK is saying they'll fine Imgur even after Imgur blocked access. At that point, what tooth does the fine have? "You must pay this fine if you want to, err, nothing I guess"?

Just because they've blocked UK users doesn't mean they aren't making revenue from advertising operating via the UK.

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#30

Post by an0malous » Tue, Sep 30, 2025, 2:05 PM UTC

dwood_dev wrote: post #20

kps wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"status": 451 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7725

I find it interesting that there was no mention of Fahrenheit 451, the very reason they picked that number. They did at least put a thanks to Ray Bradbury.

Seems like they were trying to keep the reference low key, maybe to increase the odds of its acceptance