US congressman's office set on fire over TikTok ban

A 19-year-old Wisconsin boy was arrested Sunday morning for allegedly setting fire to Congressman Glenn Grotman's office. The suspect, according to media reports, was upset by the TikTok ban because he expected President-elect Donald Trump to keep his promise not to enforce the new law.

As is known, TikTok was down for 14 hours yesterday, causing panic, outrage and even mass calls from children and teenagers to 911. But the unnamed suspect decided to go further and started a fire, Channel 24 reports, citing a report on WMTV.

What happened

Police arrived at the scene of the fire around 1 a.m. local time on Sunday. The office, rented by a Republican lawmaker who voted for a law requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a ban, did not burn down, but the entrance was severely damaged. Police later found the man near the shopping center, where he confessed to starting the fire.

There was no one in the building when the fire started, so only material damage was caused. The fire was extinguished with ordinary fire extinguishers before firefighters arrived. According to the statement, the door, the paneling, some of the surrounding area and the air conditioner were damaged.

The suspect is currently in jail. At the time of the last police statement, his identity had not yet been established, but reporters know his age. Congressman Grotman himself has hardly commented on this issue either on social networks, in person or through his representatives. The only thing he told reporters was a short phrase that he “doesn't even know what happened, except that someone tried to set fire to [the office] via TikTok”.

As a reminder, the TikTok application disappeared for American users on Saturday evening, but returned to the network on Sunday afternoon after the new President Donald Trump announced that he would sign an executive order postponing the ban at noon on the Monday after his inauguration.