Kia Boys

Speaker 1: Just a heads up, this episode contains some audio with adult language. Discretion is advised. There's this TikTok video, filmed by a woman watching as someone tries to steal her car. She's filming as she walks up behind the vehicle, and there's someone sitting in the front seat, fiddling with the ignition. And it's a kid. The kid hasn't noticed her filming when the video starts. The kid's maybe like 11 or 12, if I had to guess. And the video starts as the woman reveals herself to them, asking Hi. How are you? This is what I'm doing. Grandmother. The kid jumps and looks around all panicked and realizes he's being filmed trying to steal this car. And she says This is my grandmother. And I am calling the police. And the kid jumps out of the driver door and just cooks it down the road. Wide shot, kid getting smaller and smaller as he runs off, and she's just kind of laughing as he hoofs it off down the street. The video is tagged Kia boys. I'm not gonna play audio of all of the TikToks showing teenagers stealing Kias because that would be way too many. Or videos of people explaining how their Kia got stolen. Or all of the music with lyrics specifically about how fun it is to steal Kias, that then other teenagers play as the musical score in their videos of them stealing other Kias. But all of this kind of begs the obvious question. Why is there a thriving internet subculture about stealing specifically Kias? Last month, Kia and its parent company, Hyundai, agreed to a $200,000,000 settlement due to this wave of thefts. This is a story about what happens when a security vulnerability becomes a meme, and when the conditions are right for a meme to become a pretty big problem. This is the Kia boys, here on Hacked.

Speaker 2: I have I have heard about the Kia boys. I'm not a TikToker as you know, but I I am aware of the Kia boys. When you first started talking, I thought we were gonna be talking about the Flipper Zero and, like, all the hype it's been getting lately. I don't know

Speaker 3: if you've they

Speaker 2: have seen that, but, like, the

Speaker 1: I have been.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Little USB bad USB antenna, a little hacking gadget.

Speaker 1: Sure.

Speaker 2: I see it popping up in mainstream media. So I was like, oh. I was gonna say I wonder if it's it can be actually used in this hack. Kia boys.

Speaker 1: It probably could be useful. I do wanna talk about the Flipper Zero. I kinda wanted to talk about it at Christmas, but the time but by the time I heard about it, you couldn't order them anymore. But this story, does not concern the Flipper Zero. Okay. It's, it's both higher and lower tech than that.

Speaker 2: So are you a Kia boy, Jordan?

Speaker 1: I am not a Kia boy. I can definitively say I am not a key are you a Kia boy, Scott?

Speaker 2: I am not a Kia boy, Jordan.

Speaker 1: That's probably given where this all goes, that's probably for the best. So there's been this thing that this media thing that I've noticed since I was a teenager, and it's the genre of news story about scary teenage fads.

Speaker 2: Of course. Tide pod challenge,

Speaker 1: all the rest of it. Tide pod challenge. Exactly.

Speaker 2: Tide pod challenge. Yeah.

Speaker 1: When I was a kid, news broadcasters, I remember this, became convinced that there was a whole weird thing involving high school kids and jelly bracelets. I won't get into the details of that rumor, but there was, in retrospect, no evidence that was ever real. Before that, you had satanic panic and fears kids were worshiping the devil in their Dungeons and Dragons games. Any issue real or imagined with, like you said, Tide Pods, whatever teens are allegedly doing, is always kinda made worse by all the media coverage about this thing teens are all doing. I think we're we'll we'll avoid doing that here, because I this isn't really one of those stories. The stats which we'll discuss suggest that unlike any of those things, this actually did happen. And because it's not really done, but we're sort of in the last act of the story, so I don't think we're gonna be fanning the flames by discussing it here. Really, this is a story about a security vulnerability going viral. Who gets hurt in that situation and how the virality is often blamed before the vulnerability? Mhmm.

Speaker 2: Well, let's let's break that statement. I just wanna break that statement down a bit. You know? There's the to commit a crime requires intent and malice. You know? For a vulnerability to exist doesn't mean that people have to exploit it. It takes determination to exploit it. So I I think society I think we all agree that society is full of vulnerabilities, be them the human form or be them technological.

Speaker 4: Mhmm.

Speaker 2: But but, to take advantage of loopholes and laws, policies, you know, you name it, requires somebody who is, I would say, morally undeveloped. It all starts with

Speaker 1: the person who does it. I agree with that. But understanding why they do it is where it gets interesting. But before we get get to all that murky ethical stuff, let's start with some with some music. Why don't we? Let's start with Milwaukee rappers, Mary Mac and Sean p's hit song, Shake Yo Nene. The opening line, if I see a Kia, then I'm taking your shit.

Speaker 5: All d taking your bit.

Speaker 1: 870,000 listens on Spotify. 670,000 on YouTube. It's a hit. The hit, Scott. It's it's certified.

Speaker 2: Is this is is this the background music for all the TikToks? Like, do they are are they thematic?

Speaker 1: It is. Exactly. It is. You're gonna it's not the only one though. You're gonna find it on a bunch of Spotify playlists labeled Kia Boys, which is just songs that you play while you're

Speaker 2: Stealing Kias.

Speaker 1: Stealing Kias. Exactly. So, Kia boys. Let's unpack this. What does that mean? We're gonna go back to 2019. You are a numbers guy, Scott. I wanna I want you to load these into your noggin.

Speaker 2: Yep.

Speaker 1: According to The Verge, in 2019, Columbus, Ohio registered 3,500 car thefts

Speaker 6: Mhmm.

Speaker 1: 6% of which were Hyundai's and Kias. K. By 2021, that number spiked to 10,500 car thefts. Mhmm. 67% of which were Hyundai's and Kias.

Speaker 2: The numbers are loaded.

Speaker 1: The the numbers are loaded? That's a pretty big spike in the number of cars stolen and them specifically being Hyundai's and Kias.

Speaker 2: Would you say 10,500?

Speaker 1: Yes. 3,500 to 10,500.

Speaker 2: Yeah. So, like, an additional 7,000?

Speaker 1: Mhmm.

Speaker 2: Yep. And of those 10,500, like, six hundred and sixty eight hundred were Kias. 6,900 were Kias and Hyundais.

Speaker 1: You there's a re there's a reason I brought this to the math guy. You crunched the numbers. Basically, all of the new cars being stolen are

Speaker 2: Kias and Hyundais.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Exactly. So, like, what the heck happened here? What happened in this two year stretch that just someone decided we're stealing all of the Kias?

Speaker 2: Well, that hit song by Sean p and what who am I the other rapper was?

Speaker 1: It sure didn't help, though it is good. During this time, TikTok videos started to emerge of kids and teens, most not old enough to have driver's licenses, going for joyrides in stolen Kias. It became clear that these cars weren't being stolen to sell for parts, to be stripped down. They were being stolen for clout, to be filmed being stolen, and then abandoned somewhere. Over time, the trend began to coalesce around the hashtag Kia boys because, obviously, the cars are all Kias. I tried to find the first video that used this hashtag to figure out who was the first person to figure this out and sort of brand it in this way. TikTok has scrubbed thousands of these off of their apps, so the answer to that specific question might be lost to time. But right around that point, these memes, these Kia Boy memes, they began to flow. Look at us in this Kia we stole, blasting the song about how cool it is to steal a Kia. Isn't this fun?

Speaker 2: I'm breaking so many laws, but look at my my my TikTok viewership is way up, so we're all good.

Speaker 1: There's literally a Simpsons joke about this, about, like, filming this crime spree was the best idea we've ever had. Those two sets of numbers. 3,500 to over 10006% Kias going to 67% Kias on Hyattides. Dank memes about car theft going viral only explains part of this. Right? It explains the 3,500 to 10,500 spike.

Speaker 2: Of course.

Speaker 1: The other important number is that 67% of them being these two brands of cars. So why these brands? So for context, for anyone who doesn't know, Hyundai owns Kia. So while Kia got the name recognition, it got into the songs, it got the the meme named after it, it's really this kind of family of vehicles. Why did the car theft trend coalesce around them?

Speaker 2: So there's no Hyundai boys?

Speaker 1: There's no Hyundai boys. There's Kia boys spelled, boys with an s, and then in a different state there seems to be it it sort of, like, etymologically shifted to being Kia boys spelled with a zed, but they're all just the Kia boys. There's some variation on that.

Speaker 2: Zed is Canadian for z for all of our American listeners.

Speaker 1: Oh, I just, I'm I'm I'm about to out myself as Canadian again in a second,

Speaker 4: though, so

Speaker 1: might as well break it to them. So why did it coalesce around these brands? And the answer to that hinges on something called an immobilizer. You're familiar with an immobilizer, Scott?

Speaker 2: I wanna say yes. But Okay. At the same time, no. I wanna say that it's something that plugs into the light control unit of the car, but I don't fully know if that's the case.

Speaker 1: An immobilizer is an electronic security device that stops the engine of a vehicle from starting unless a corresponding smart key, like your fob, is present.

Speaker 2: Yes. Yes. Now now I am aware. Yes. And I was wrong.

Speaker 1: That's that that's not what that would have been. K. Gotcha.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Gotcha. So all modern cars have RFID chips in the keys, and as long as the key is present in the car, the car will allow itself to start, give or take. Exactly. I think BMW introduced this system in, like, 2002, maybe. I think I remember the first time I heard about it. Yeah.

Speaker 1: That would that would make sense when the timeline's here. It's pretty simple tech like you said. When you put your put in your key, there's this little radio handshake between your car and your fob. The immobilizer in the car needs to receive this simple code stored in the fob before it will allow the engine to start.

Speaker 2: Mhmm.

Speaker 1: Immobilizers are an answer to the well known issue of hot wiring. Mhmm. There are ways around it. Using something called a relay attack, you can essentially remotely steal that fob code and then use it later, but that requires equipment and advanced planning. It's more of a targeted vulnerability.

Speaker 2: Sure. Yeah. You can't do it to any random Kia? Exactly.

Speaker 1: You can bypass an immobilizer, but you either need to use a manufacturer's app, or if you have a record of the specific code stored on the fob, some cars have workarounds that let you input it in different ways. Some have you can do it with key turns. They're all different. They're all novel. But broadly speaking, for now, as a security layer against random random theft, immobilizers do an okay job. Because we live in Canada, I think I can definitively say that your car has an immobilizer in it. Sure does. In September 2007, the Canadian government passed regulation saying you cannot sell a car in this country without one. If your car is newer than that and you live here, you almost certainly have an immobilizer in it. Importantly, and this whole story turns on this, there is no such regulation in The US. You can sell a new car without an immobilizer.

Speaker 2: And let me guess. Almost every single brand puts one in anyway because they're doing it for probably the rest of the world. But a few key Korean car companies aren't doing it to save to save a little bit of money in certain markets. Let me guess.

Speaker 1: Let you get let you guess away. In 2011, Hyundai Motors, who makes Kias and Hondas, decided not to install immobilizers in The US, allegedly, as a cost cutting measure. Hey. Their settlement in that $200,000,000 lawsuit would suggest they do not disagree with those allegations. Importantly, that same car sold at the exact same time, a few hours away up here in Canada, was sold with an immobilizer in it. Now, the absence of an immobilizer on its own probably wouldn't account for this much of a spike because you still need to know how to hotwire a car. Sure. Unless, Kias were designed with a physical security flaw that made doing that exceptionally easy. So easy, a child could literally do it. If you were to pair that vulnerability with the absence of an immobilizer, you would have the recipe for a viral trend of car thefts. You need both for this to work.

Speaker 2: I mean, both of those, then you need, I guess, our, like, new form of micro celebrity on social media.

Speaker 1: That's the first funny coincidence of this story. The second weird coincidence concerns the size of a standard USB cable. Standard phone charging cable that almost every teenager has a bunch of kind of explains why this car was so uniquely hot wireable. If you were to rip off the plastic steering column cover of any Kias or Hyundai's made during this window, and then just pop off the ignition cylinder, again, both literally so easy a child can and many have done, instead of like a crazy tangle of wires to start like stripping and chopping and twisting together, all you would find is this little metal nub. This little metal rectangle. You'd probably need some like needle nose pliers to turn it. It'd be finicky and kinda tricky to do. But weird coincidence, this nub happens to be almost the exact same size as the hole in a USB cable, like a classic USB a charging cable.

Speaker 2: Like the plug. Exactly.

Speaker 1: You pop that charging cable hole over the nub and just turn it like a key and the car starts. And because it doesn't have an immobilizer, it works for context.

Speaker 2: For context. I feel

Speaker 1: I feel okay explaining this in this level of detail because this has been very well documented in both the media and the courts. Yeah. But it goes without saying, please don't use this as an instruction manual to steal a Kia.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Especially when there's probably iPhone cable plugged into a USB port inside of those said Kias. So they literally most of them probably have the tools to steal them sitting inside of them. That's crazy to think about, actually.

Speaker 1: That's a that that's a really good point. I hadn't really thought about that. When you're leaving a USB cable in a American Kia or Hyundai build during that time, you are leaving the key in the ignition effectively. Interesting point. Like I said, we don't know the first person to post this compromise, and we don't know the first person to brand themselves a Kia Boy. That's lost to TikToks, like scrubbed archives. But we know it started in and around Milwaukee, and it spread out from there. To be a Kia boy isn't really to be in a gang. There isn't money. There's no structure. There's no initiation. There's no hierarchy. It's not what we think of when we think of a gang. It's kinda something else.

Speaker 2: It's like the it's like a It's like

Speaker 1: a very extreme meme. It's like

Speaker 2: the contemporary equivalent of, like, the prankster gangs online or, like, the the online syndicate of prankster social media personalities.

Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, it it it I think it's part of that. Like, it it is definitely part of that same, watch me do this thing I'm not supposed to do. It's not, like, fun and cool because I'm 15. It's like, that's that's since time immemorial. You got a bunch of teens during lockdown on TikTok in Milwaukee, and they have the thought that it's gotten teenage boys in trouble for a very long time. It seems like everyone is doing this thing. I should do it too.

Speaker 2: Mhmm. Never seen that before.

Speaker 1: Never seen that before. Wouldn't have any experiences with that myself. So people in Milwaukee and the surrounding states, you know, kinda spreads into Ohio, are are having themselves a a pretty big worry about this. Not just about the skyrocketing thefts, but mostly about what happens immediately after. Because the reason you steal a Kia is so that you can go on a joyride in a stolen Kia and film it and put it on TikTok where you saw all the other videos about that exact same thing. And I I really do get this instinct. I grew up watching Jackass. The number of things I jumped off of into other things, countless.

Speaker 2: I think I think that's called a victory lap.

Speaker 1: It's a victory lap. Exactly.

Speaker 2: Is a victory lap.

Speaker 1: They're going on a victory lap.

Speaker 2: You plug in your iPhone and put some music on. You take it for a rip. You do the victory lap. It's a victory lap.

Speaker 1: Yeah. But the thing about a teen meme that involves doing a joyriding victory lap in a stolen car is that suddenly, you have hundreds, if not thousands, of quite young teenagers in a pretty concentrated area ripping around on the road in stolen cars, crashing them, like,

Speaker 2: quite a lot. So is there is there, like, a classic end to the victory lap here? Like, do they, like, just joyride the cars into walls, or, like or is it just kind of random?

Speaker 1: It's it's I mean, it's weird to say, but in the ideal case, it's random. You drive for a bit and you abandon the car, but there is another way it can end. And, you know, on a not very long timeline, someone's getting hurt. Yeah. Exactly.

Speaker 2: Got a bunch of youth that don't fully know how to drive and don't probably have a lot of thousands of hours behind the wheel. No. That makes sense that there would only be that the risk factors would definitely increase.

Speaker 1: The definitive document of all this beyond the TikToks was a video by Donut Media called Kia Boys documentary, a story of teenage car theft.

Speaker 4: Could you show us how it looks to steal a car?

Speaker 6: I can show you inside your car. Yep.

Speaker 1: A YouTuber named Tommy g interviews folks around Milwaukee about the Kia Boys trend. There's a lot to unpack and go into in this video. That's not what we're gonna do. But during the intro, he's talking to some people on the street, and he talks to a woman who had her car stolen. And you're reminded that it doesn't really matter who stole it or why, it just sucks to have your car stolen. It can really mess with your life.

Speaker 5: Yeah.

Speaker 2: Totally. Especially if you're underinsured. Completely.

Speaker 4: Is that Kia boy stole your car?

Speaker 6: Yes. Can't take the kids to school. Can't make appointments. Gotta call them to work. So I was trying to go outside and try to get cry.

Speaker 4: Was it a big financial hit to you?

Speaker 2: Definitely. Good

Speaker 6: time as an adult.

Speaker 2: Tag onto that the fact that they probably have payments on said car. If they weren't insured insured for theft, the car gets stolen, destroyed. They're still making the payments every month, and they're just out of vehicle at that point. Like, it's a significant impact to, I think, anybody's life to have anything stolen. So, yeah, not definitely not definitely not a joyous, laughable outcome

Speaker 1: No.

Speaker 2: For any of the people involved.

Speaker 1: Tommy g then interviews some some kids and teens doing this whole

Speaker 4: key. I'm Tommy g, and I'm here with

Speaker 6: my name's Sonny.

Speaker 4: I'll call you Marvin the accountant. Okay? Alright. So, Marvin, when did you start getting into the Kia business here?

Speaker 6: I ain't gonna lie. Like, shit. Two summer ago, that's when it all started. Hyundai's and Kia.

Speaker 4: Do you get nervous before you do that?

Speaker 6: Hell no.

Speaker 4: I'm gonna film you guys, but I don't think I'm gonna get into a car with you because I feel like I might die. Are there Kia boys that have crashed a car and died?

Speaker 6: Yeah. The worst thing I ever seen, somebody asked to drive, and then they cry they flip the car in less than twenty seconds.

Speaker 1: And while he's interviewing them, I imagine because some other kid saw there was a YouTuber on their block, in the background of the shot, this red Kia just tears through the frame.

Speaker 4: Uh-oh. Hey, watch this, watch this, watch this.

Speaker 1: Perfect timing. This red Kia just rips through. Off in the distance, it gets all squirrely in the intersection, kind of bounces up the curb, off the road, skitches between a tree and a fire hydrant, scraping kinda between them, and it scooches back onto the road and drives off.

Speaker 4: What?

Speaker 1: In a video with, like, a lot of kind of YouTuber y artifice to it, it's a very real moment.

Speaker 6: Hey. What's that?

Speaker 4: What did we just see right now?

Speaker 6: They just seen the smackin' ass shit. That's what smackin' ass shit, man.

Speaker 4: How fast do you think

Speaker 6: they were going? I

Speaker 5: tried to e barge that one. It's very

Speaker 1: clearly a person without a driver's license going full like, it reminds you of Grand Theft Auto, like, but in a real car. Mhmm. In that moment, you kind of realize what it would be like to have hundreds of kids joy riding joy riding around in your city. Not a not a safe situation. There's a few headlines from this story worth discussing, and the first concerns the driver of that red Kia. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes, Markel Hughes charged after Kia boys video got millions of views. Raquel Views of Milwaukee was identified as one of the participants in a Kia Boys documentary style video that has been viewed 6,000,000 times on YouTube, filmed 05/17/2022. It shows a red car driving erratically, at times coming close to striking pedestrians. A couple of weeks later, police say they received an anonymous tip that the driver of the vehicle was Hughes. He was arrested June 9 after police say he attempted to flee from officers. He admitted on June 10 to being the driver of the vehicle.

Speaker 2: How old was he?

Speaker 1: He was 17 at the time of the filming. Okay. And I think he is now 18.

Speaker 2: I was gonna say, how was his name, published? Because I assumed he was like a like a like a youth youth, like 12, 13. Like, that'd be very rare.

Speaker 1: He was on the older end of it. Yeah. He was 17, I think, when it happened. And I'm not sure if he was 18 or not when he was arrested, but they sure did they sure did publish his name a whole bunch. In April, he plead guilty to two felony counts, dropping all other charges, faces a, faces a total of two years jail time and four years of extended supervision. That arrest was one of a handful of bigger stories to come out of this. The other was worse. I guess just a heads up for folks, it it gets a bit heavier from here out. October of last year, headline, four teens dead in crash possibly linked to TikTok car theft. Yikes. Buffalo police said six teenagers between the age of 14 and 19 were speeding on a highway in a stolen Kia Sportage before the rollover crash. The car was reportedly stolen on Sunday night. Just to sort of summarize it, all five passengers were ejected from the vehicle. The fourth, a 15 year old girl was taken to a hospital. On Tuesday of that week, police named the four teenagers who were killed, Marcus Webster, Swayze and Swindle, Kevin Payne, and Ajeney Harper. The driver plead guilty to manslaughter. Pretty rough situation.

Speaker 5: Mhmm.

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Speaker 1: Let's start with TikTok.

Speaker 2: Let's start with TikTok. Let's what doesn't start with TikTok these days?

Speaker 1: So social media, like, platform content moderation is a weird wild subject unto itself. Like, more than an episode, we could probably do, like, a whole series on it.

Speaker 2: Could you imagine having that job? Like, I remember didn't we talk about this, like, 42 episodes ago when we talked about the Facebook moderators

Speaker 6: Yes.

Speaker 2: And, like, just how how dark that world can

Speaker 1: get. It's like this weird, unspoken thing that we must know there's terrible like, videos of people stealing cars sounds kind of extreme. On the spectrum of things that could be uploaded to social media platforms, it's it's pretty mild. The people who have to sort of be the filter against that even worse stuff, I cannot imagine having that job.

Speaker 2: Oh, especially especially given how, what's the right way to put this, especially given how how this this what we're discussing here at the Kia boys is becoming like a that overall trend where you're seeing, quote, unquote, pranksters. You could just call them, you know, petty criminals mostly, just doing Yep. Things for impressions. You know? It's it's such a imagine being the people sitting on the other end looking at

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 2: All of this. Imagine the skew that it would give you on society if all you did all day was look at the worst things on the Internet. Like, not that we all don't spend a lot of the day on the Internet, and most of it's the worst things on the Internet.

Speaker 1: But it is by definition the less worse stuff because they caught the worse stuff.

Speaker 2: I see it by definition the less worse stuff.

Speaker 1: It is. They they stopped you from seeing that, or they didn't, and you reported it, and then they also had to see it.

Speaker 2: Well, like the like, I remember when the Facebook stuff all went public back when we talked about it, you know, whenever that was years ago. Mhmm. And there was, like you know, you you had moderators that were seeing, like, abuse, child abuse, sexual abuse Really real stuff.

Speaker 1: Murder. Like, there was

Speaker 2: yeah. Just wild. Like, anyway, the big digression. Let's go go back to TikTok.

Speaker 1: It is and it isn't because the the way that filtering and moderation process works is it tends to live and die by the company's community guidelines. Mhmm. People want to know what they can post. The company doesn't wanna be held responsible for moderating speech on a case by case basis even though they they have to be. So sort of like a middle ground, you you write these rules that you can then refer to when you do or don't remove content. These community guidelines. Mhmm. It's not abdicating responsibility because they wrote them, but it makes it easier to kind of say, you know, we didn't really choose to keep or remove this content. We we have the guidelines. You have the guidelines that you theoretically agreed to when you uploaded this content. We're sort of all underneath them, and they either do or don't breach the terms of those rules.

Speaker 2: That that every time anytime this comes up in a conversation, it just reminds me of when, Zuckerberg was speaking in front of Yeah. Some American political body Sure. Whether it was a subcommittee or a committee or the whatever. And he was like, you need to tell me what to do because I don't wanna be in charge of the morality of society. Like, this isn't my role in this. Like, please guide us. Like, everybody can be critical of what we're doing, but at the same time, like, we're trying to figure this out in real time, and it's like I totally sympathize with that perspective. It's like that would be such a weird place to be to be like, we know what's good for our business. Yep. We also think we personally know what's good for society. But should I like, with billions of users, should I be essentially, quote, unquote, the person who gets to decide what people read and see? Like, that's gotta be a that's a crazy

Speaker 1: That's a weird job to exist.

Speaker 2: Quandary. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Well, it's

Speaker 1: Yeah. God of information. Billions of users and billions of dollars. And the the threshold for the billions of dollars is, well, what will the advertisers get angry about? That's where the money is coming from. And that's not a great, moral standard. Mhmm. That that's not that shouldn't be where those rules come from.

Speaker 2: Yeah.

Speaker 1: But I digress.

Speaker 2: But we digress.

Speaker 10: Tonight, four teens killed in a deadly Upstate New York car crash involving a stolen Kia that police say may be linked to a popular TikTok challenge.

Speaker 1: Those teens I mentioned weren't the only ones. I think the number connected to this is up to about eight now. People have gone to jail. Lives have been altered. TikTok did not drive those cars or create those videos. But it's complicated because they probably wouldn't have been driving them if it wasn't for videos they saw on TikTok. So what does TikTok say and do? A representative from TikTok emphasized to a bunch of different outlets that the company does not endorse or support the trend. Good. It goes against their policies, the community guidelines. They assure that any content found on their platform that violates those community guidelines will be promptly removed. It is also good. But, like we said, the the how you navigate these community guidelines is not straightforward. TikTok employs a workforce of 40,000 human moderators who are tasked with determining whether content aligns or doesn't with those community guidelines. In the context of the Kia boys, a TikTok video demonstrating how to steal a Kia is gonna get taken down.

Speaker 2: Mhmm.

Speaker 1: As

Speaker 2: it as it should.

Speaker 1: As it should. You should definitely take that video down. On the other hand, a video showcasing how to steal a Kia as a means to alert Kia owners about the potential vulnerabilities could probably be permitted, which

Speaker 2: Yes. Surprisingly, is the exact same video.

Speaker 1: It's the same video, but also if everyone's getting their key stolen and you wanted to know how it was happening so you could prevent it, that's pretty important content.

Speaker 2: Well, but but is there I I would I would I would return with this question. Is is there anything that the car owner can do to prevent it besides other forms of immobilizers being like boots and, you know, steering wheel locks, etcetera, etcetera? In which case, you could make a video that you could just showcase other forms of immobilizers. Because that seems that seems like the only actual potential maybe solution.

Speaker 1: But it brings up the question, would this episode of this podcast pass that gut check-in regards of their community guidelines? Because I we I explained it in pretty vivid detail

Speaker 3: That's true.

Speaker 1: For purely educational, like, wanting people to understand how this vulnerability worked. This is a show for people who are interested in that kind of thing. It's not for 14 year old car thieves, but would this get through? I don't know. It's a really, really tricky situation. Yeah. But what it all means is that unless a video actively encourages illegal activities, a lot of TikToks created by Kia Boys are safeguarded by those community guidelines. And interestingly, videos featuring Kia Boys driving stolen cars, in many cases, don't actually violate the company's policies because there's typically no concrete evidence in the video to prove that the vehicle was stolen. It's just a video of a person driving around in a car. That's TikTok. This endless hamster wheel of content moderators versus whatever ridiculous idea the Internet cooks up this month. And then there are the car companies. And the question kind of in the middle of all this, why in God's name did you not put immobilizers in your cars?

Speaker 2: Save money, Jordan.

Speaker 1: Like, you put them in the cars up here, and there's not one Kia boy in Canada. It has not happened here. Like, I could end the episode there. Like, you should have done that. The first class actual lawsuit was filed in California. Cleveland, Milwaukee, New York City, Columbus are filing their own suits against the car company. Columbus City attorney Zach Klein on the subject of car manufacturers failing to install security and safety devices as a cost cutting measure said, quote, for years, Kia and I Hyundai cut corners and sold vehicles they knew were so unsafe, they could be stolen with ease by a teenager with access to simple tools and a TikTok account. Kia and Hyundai's negligence in pursuit of corporate profit is unconscionable. In response, Hyundai, I'm editorializing here, I think this is kind of a shrug. The official statement on their website, quote, it is unfortunate that criminals are using social media to target vehicles without engine immobilizers in a coordinated effort. All of our vehicles meet or exceed federal motor vehicle safety standards. The rules say we don't have to do this. So we don't. So we don't. Yeah. If there wasn't a law against it, I genuinely wonder if there would be seat belts in those cars.

Speaker 2: Probably not. Well, they're they might be there as option on optional accessories.

Speaker 1: Sure. It'd be an upsell.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Exactly. Oh, you want seat belts? An extra $300.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Totally.

Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't know. That's that's a complicated one. It's like the it reminds me it reminds me again of let's go back to the digression of Mark Zuckerberg sitting instead of, in front of a government committee being like

Speaker 1: It evokes that.

Speaker 2: Being like, you guys haven't given me rules to follow. Like, all he wants is all all they wanted at that time was rules. Like, you you tell me what's right and wrong. Don't put that in our hands. Like, how are we supposed to decide? Like, you were seeing that obviously now with, like, you know, Twitter Twitter's bias versus Elon's acquisition versus free speech. Like, it's happening all over the Internet now where you've got there's this conflict between, you know, all these different moralities and what is ethical and what's not, and what's right and what should be, you know, constrained, etcetera, etcetera. So it's it's

Speaker 1: Yeah. I I don't know if

Speaker 2: If you're a car company and somebody says, you don't need to do something and you decide not to do it, are you liable?

Speaker 1: It would seem in this case they are because those lawsuits, they did start losing those. May 18 Reuters reports, Hyundai and Kia Motor Corp agreed to a consumer class action lawsuit settlement of $200,000,000. In February, the Korean automaker said they would offer software upgrades to 8,300,000 US vehicles without anti theft immobilizers to help curb increasing car thefts using a method popularized on TikTok. Continuing that Reuters coverage, the settlement covers about 9,000,000 US owners, includes up to 145,000,000 for out of pocket losses for consumers who had cars stolen, lawyers for the owner said. Hyundai and Kia said they will compensate owners who, quote, incurred theft related vehicle losses or damage in addition to reimbursement for insurance deductibles, increased insurance premiums, and other theft related caught losses. For customers whose vehicles cannot accommodate security software upgrades, the automaker will provide up to $300 for the purchase of a steering wheel lock. And it summarizes TikTok videos showing how to steal cars without push button ignitions and immobilizing anti theft devices has led to at least 14 reported crashes. And as I mentioned earlier, eight fatalities in The United States.

Speaker 2: You know what's funny? Shoot. Is that, like, you and I both travel a decent amount. Mhmm. Something that I very rarely see in Canada is a steering wheel lock. But when I'm when I'm in The States, I see them all the time. And I wonder if

Speaker 1: if That's a really good point.

Speaker 2: I wonder if our legislation about car immobilizers isn't the reason why we like, I wonder how many other car manufacturers didn't put immobilizers in their American cars, except for the fact that maybe they can't be stolen with an Apple iPhone charging cable.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Sure. Right.

Speaker 2: So so that they're not memeable. So it's like it's it's I've always wondered that when I travel. I'm like, why everybody here has a steering wheel lock. And it's like, I you never see the mechanical.

Speaker 1: That's a that's a really good point. And I remember some interesting I remember seeing them a lot when I was a kid Yeah. Prior to 2007 Yeah. Exactly. When the Canadian government passed a law saying you have to put this basic anti theft thing in your car because people steep keep stealing cars.

Speaker 2: So maybe That's a really good point. Wait. Conspiracy theory here.

Speaker 1: Hit me.

Speaker 2: The the steering wheel lock lobby is behind this all. Big lock. Big lock. Yeah.

Speaker 1: Big lock did it. Big lock. Because I'd let Oh, they strike again.

Speaker 2: It's like a it's funny. I've never I've never it's never even clued in. It just popped into my head, and I was like, you know what? Every time I travel, I'm always like, so weird. Like, everybody here uses these things, and we like, nobody at home does. Like, our car thefts can't be that, like, like, car theft seems like a global crime that happens everywhere no matter demographics or what. It's just something that happens. It's like it's it's strange that you never see it in Canada, but this this could be the missing link.

Speaker 1: We we we put it all together.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Solved. I'll take this one down off the board to unpin all the pins and attach all the strings.

Speaker 4: Yeah. There you go.

Speaker 1: I wanna end just with, like, a a a very quick discussion about, you know, why what why do teens do stuff like this? Because there's the vulnerability, and there's the, the meme element of it, but it's a pretty extreme form of teenage rebellion and I think that's worth talking about. There's this, I think important statistic that I think needs to be included here for this last little bit to make sense. I learned while reading about this that there is an often repeated claim that Milwaukee is America's most segregated city. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel did a long piece on it. While Milwaukee City is technically only in the top 10, it's seventh. The Milwaukee re metro region is first, as in the most racially segregated place in America. It's both New York, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland. Redlining and housing discrimination have entrenched this problem. So I'm just gonna come back to The Verge's very good coverage on this. The article quotes Paul Belair, professor of sociology and director of Ohio State University's Criminal Justice Research Center. And they're talking about this question of whether teens getting into trouble are motivated by what we think they are. And Paul talks about this other sociologist, late socio sociologist Albert Cohen, who studied youth trouble making in the mid twentieth century. And Paul says, quote, he observed that they would steal things, get outside the store, laugh, and eventually, all the stuff they stole would wind up in a dumpster. Meaning, they didn't really want the stuff. The Verge continues, Beller observes that when a society economically and racially segregates certain populations, this isolation births new social structures outside of the mainstream, fostering subcultures like the Kia boys. Quoting Bel Air, you reject the prevailing norms and you recreate a system in which you can gain status and where you do have status. In under resourced areas of Columbus like Linden, young black men are given few opportunities within their neighborhoods. Quote, it's a rebellion, Bellaire argues, against their low standing and institutional structures. I think if you're a young person and the culture around you literally segregates you in those ways, you're gonna do what teens do and make your own subculture within it. And if that othering is really extreme, worst in the country, so it seems might your subculture. And in 2023, whether that subculture is about doing, like, a little Internet dance, or whether it's about stealing people's cars, a lot of that's tied up in a role of the algorithm. Teens have always done some version of this. They're always gonna do some version of this. I don't know if this ends with a software update, or better anti theft legislation, or TikTok's community guidelines changing, or there just being no Kias left in The States to steal because the boys stole all of them. I have no clue how it ends. But looking at this map of Milwaukee, and these places where this happened most intensely, it sure seems like these kind of subcultures are gonna keep coming along, as long as the larger culture that surrounds it keeps looking like this.

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