Imgur will ban pornographic material from the platform
Image host and social medium Imgur will significantly tighten its rules regarding pornographic material and uploads made without an account. Nude, sexually explicit material and porn will in many cases no longer be allowed from May 15.
Imgur says the usage agreement of the site to be aligned with the community rules. These apply to what Imgur calls the ‘public gallery’, and elsewhere on the site the ‘community’. It is also possible to only upload to a profile, then the image is in principle only visible to users with a link. Finally, uploading without an account is possible, regardless of whether the image ends up in the public gallery, at least at the time of writing.
Ban on porn
According to community rules, nudity, pornography and sexually explicit material are not allowed. Exceptions exist for artistic, scientific and educational images of naked people. Imgur, for example, also approves of a bare bottom that is shown without erotic intentions.
Although pornographic material cannot be found on Imgur’s public gallery, it is certainly on the site. Users who upload such material hotlink to it on pornographic subreddits, for example. This is still possible now, but will no longer be possible under the new rules. This must be enforced with a combination of automatic and manual moderation.
‘Accountless’ uploads also at risk, but the wording is not crystal clear
Imgur also says it targets “old, unused, and inactive content that is not associated with a user account on our platform.” Strictly speaking, it appears that ‘accountless’ uploads on the platform are not removed unless they do not reach a certain threshold of views and are already older. However, it could also be the case that meeting a single criterion from the Imgur quote already means that removal will take place, which would mean that all accountless uploads will be removed sooner or later.
Motivation
Imgur justifies the policy change in the announcement by saying that it wants to create more clarity with a clearer policy, i.e. not split into a user agreement and community rules. It further states: “Explicit and illegal content has historically posed a risk to Imgur’s community and its business. Banning explicit content ensures that Imgur can address these risks and safeguard the future of the Imgur community.” The community rules already noted: “Imgur welcomes a diverse audience. We don’t want to create a bad experience for anyone who comes across explicit images, nor is it part of our company ethos to support explicit content, so some lascivious or sexualized posts are not Allowed.”
Imgur is a very popular destination for easily and quickly uploading images, animated images and videos and sharing them with others. 173,438 posts on GoT have imgur.com in their content, as a link or embed. The site started as a project by a student who found similar services unfriendly to use. The service is also widely used for Reddit posts, but that declined when Reddit introduced its native image host in 2016. MediaLab AI, Inc. acquired Imgur in 2021. That company owns Genius, WorldstarHipHop and Kik, among others.
Imgur is not the first image host to take such measures. A well-known example is Tumblr, which banned porn images in 2018. OnlyFans also made this decision, but reversed it. Other well-known image hosts from the past include Tinypic, which eventually saw the costs for the free site rise too high, and sister site Photobucket, which fell out of favor because it suddenly charged a lot of money for previously free services. Imgur is also free, but does offer a paid option to remove advertising.