A man has been arrested in connection with a fire set early Sunday in response to “recent discussions” over a ban on the popular video app TikTok, authorities said. The fire occurred at a shopping mall that includes the district office of a Wisconsin state lawmaker who has criticized the app.
The unidentified man, 19, was found near a shopping mall in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, where Republican Congressman Glenn Grossman's office is located, and was arrested, the city's police department said.
Police said there were no injuries and the mall was empty when police and firefighters were called to the scene around 1 a.m.
Police said the man was being held at the Fond du Lac County Jail and was being booked on suspicion of arson.
The fire remained under investigation. The Fond du Lac Fire Department said the exterior of the building sustained moderate damage and the interior sustained minor damage. Fond du Lac is a city of more than 44,000 people located approximately 110 miles north of Milwaukee.
Police said the man told authorities he set the fire “in response to the recent TikTok ban story.”
TikTok, the short-form video app owned by Chinese company ByteDance, is no longer available in the United States starting Saturday night due to a new law banning the company's app there.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Grossman did not immediately respond to inquiries about Sunday's fire. Grossman is one of many public officials who have expressed concerns about TikTok.
He previously said in a statement that the app “raises national security concerns by leaving millions of Americans' data exposed to communist China,” and said the app's parent company “is a threat to the internet. “They have deceptive tools to mine sensitive personal information, including personal information,” it added. browsing. “
The Supreme Court said the government's national security concerns about the app outweighed free speech concerns about shutting down the app, which is used by about 170 million monthly U.S. users.
TikTok on Sunday said it was “restoring its services” after Trump promised that it would not face financial penalties for hosting TikTok while the service looks for ways to comply with the law. ' announced on social media.
