Apologies for the absence recently, we have had many serious issues to resolve which would possibly prevented our future operation in prevention of crime and supporting communities blighted by it. We are now adjusting our operation to fit around these restrictions. We will add any appeals that were missed on the site and apologies to those affected. This was beyond our control and forced upon us.
We had to evaluate a number of new scenarios that have arisen. Firstly, due to the political landscape and restrictions on free speech, peoples thoughts and comments, as well as Social Media Censoring, but also due to some new technology having some unforeseen glitches. We will go through them below, and discuss our options to resolve this.
We did not foresee the issues with free speech making too much of a difference in what we do, after all we are trying to reduce motorcycle theft and related crimes – it isn’t like we are doing anything wrong. But under this new government regime, what is right and wrong? The goalposts have changed and getting them to stay in one spot has been difficult. The reality is, the line has become thinner, heavily faded and prone to movement – we are getting no guarantees that exposing the theft issue may in itself become an offence if it appears to expose failures of the regime. It is a time of uncertainty, and nothing is guaranteed. We have fought to get answers, but as this government have proven time and again, answers are not forthcoming, and are prone to change on a whim.
As many of you are aware, changes have been happening in the UK with freedom of speech and the restrictions on it by the Labour Government being at the forefront of the news media. We as always, do not take sides – nor do we condone any violent action by any political pressure groups, regardless of their intentions.
However, with convicts being released for minor offences, as well as more serious sexual and violent offences with the purpose of imprisoning those ‘rioters or far right activists’ or possibly those not supportive of one political view or agenda. This raises issues not only with unwanted division in society – we are all equal after all. But also in the fact that crime is rising with many offenders being released are involved with Vehicle Crime, and Gang Violence. A huge number have reoffended within days of release.
This puts us under more pressure as a community with increase in thefts, as well as undoing much of the work we have done in prevention and helping the communities blighted by it as well as sending the wrong signals to those that are on rehabilitation programs. This was displayed recently when one released offender posed with a Bentley, mocking and thanking Sir Keir Starmer PM for his release. Our fears here are that it sends the wrong message to those on rehabilitation schemes that crime pays after all.
We also have issues with Social media being so heavily and readily censored now, that many are being restricted for making comments that bots have decided breaches terms and conditions. Even our own appeals for mentioning words such as ‘stolen’ – it is getting quite bizarre when you are working to prevent crime. This restrictions may be totally unrelated to the comment, but with no human intervention people are being unjustifiably restricted here as well. A comment from one of our team, saw a two month personal ban for a 5 star restaurant review, following a well enjoyed meal. That was deemed racist as it mentioned the type of cuisine that establishment provided. Now, increasingly, comments are made in code or emoji’s, even Theft Alerts are being pulled down for inciting violence – when all the post does is ask people to keep their eyes out for a stolen bike, and let us know. It is becoming unreasonably restrictive.
Many with Anti Theft Groups are aware, is this constant barrage of scammers that are taking up valuable time and resource filtering out on theft posts. The media sites seem unwilling or unable to combat this, and leave it to group monitors and admin. This makes the censorship even more frustrating for those working with good intentions.
We are also coming up with issues with our own Generative AI project. Some may be aware, that we have a number of AI subjects that have various jobs that help us operate. That can be hunting bike thieves through their own media devices or finding stolen bikes and getting the owners to report them on the site. This worked well to begin with, but as AI spreads on Social Media itself, we are finding unforeseen conflicts which we are working on. It’s a new technology, so to be expected. More specialist training is being undertaken to try and resolve this, it is staying one step ahead of the new technology. We have paused the AI aspect on Social Media for the time being, with those being taken over by Humans for the time being – they have been silent for some months whilst we worked out the legal landscape under the current government.
In the meantime, we are looking into other options to combat the scammers, counter the censoring and surveillance that is hampering crime detection and unfairly penalising the theft victims. We wish for people to be able to discuss concerns freely, but respectfully. This is becoming increasingly impossible in the current climate, and with the current government’s position, and one that appears to chop and change at will, we are needing to look for safer, and stable options that enable work to continue in reducing and combatting crime.
What we are considering currently is to reduce the interaction on social media to appeals and stories, but with the interaction happening in a ‘private’ arena. This maybe through ‘Private’ Media (similar to FB, but community only) or returning to Forum based community where free speech and ideas can be shared in a closed environment. We would welcome other group leaders to become a part of this, which we all know how hard it is becoming just trying to manage the scammers and censoring. Normal SM channels will remain, but there will be an undiluted and safe option available away from those channels. That is what is currently being considered and costed.
Hopefully, this will protect the victims of crime, and those wanting to make a difference in their communities by passing information without the fear of sanctions from media companies or robbed by scammers, after already having lost their motorcycle.
If you have thoughts and ideas please let us hear them, this is your community!
UKBTA Team
