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A man has admitted to setting fire to a building housing a House member from Wisconsin’s office over “recent talks of a TikTok ban,” according to local police.
The 19-year-old man was caught Sunday by the Fond Du Lac police, the department said in a post on Facebook that noted the man is a suspect in the burning of a building “which has office space leased to U.S. Representative Glenn Grothman.”
“We are relieved that no one was injured and the office was unoccupied at the time of the fire. Acts of violence, in any form are not tolerated, and we remain committed to protecting the safety and well-being of our community,” the police department’s chief Aaron Goldstein said in a statement in the post.
“I am thankful for the swift response of our Officers in helping knock down the fire and also locating the suspect of this arson,” he added.
The police department also said in their post that its officers early Sunday morning “responded for a possible structure fire” at the building housing Grothman’s office. The suspect in the arson was found close to the building by officers and said he set the fire because of “recent talks of a TikTok ban.”
On Sunday, a law went into effect requiring TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, to divest from the app or risk being banned in the U.S. Preparing for the ban, the app cut off U.S. access to the platform Saturday just before midnight.
“A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now,” a message read when American users opened the app.
However, on Sunday, TikTok said it was “in the process” of bringing back U.S. service, only around 12 hours after it cut off access to American users.
“In agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service,” TikTok said in a statement posted to the social platform X.
“We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive,” it continued.
