A man has been arrested in connection with a fire that broke out early Sunday in response to “recent talks” to ban the popular video app TikTok, authorities said. The fire broke out at a shopping center that includes a district office of a Wisconsin lawmaker who has been critical of the app.
The man, 19, who has not been named, was arrested after he was found near a Fond du Lac, Wis., mall that houses the office of U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman, a Republican, the city’s police department said in a statement. his announcement.
No one was injured and the mall was empty when police and firefighters responded around 1 a.m., police said.
The man was being held in the Fond du Lac County Jail and the arson charge was referred to prosecutors, police said.
The fire remained under investigation. The exterior of the building sustained moderate damage and the interior sustained minor damage, according to the Fond du Lac Fire Department. Fond du Lac, a city of more than 44,000 residents, is located approximately 68 miles north of Milwaukee.
The man told authorities he started the fire “in response to recent talks to ban TikTok,” police said.
As of Saturday night, TikTok, the short-form video app owned by Chinese company ByteDance, was unavailable in the United States due to a new law banning the company’s apps in the United States.
Press representative of Mr. Grothman did not immediately respond to an inquiry Sunday about the fire. Mr. Grothman was one of several public officials who have expressed concerns about TikTok.
It previously said in a statement that the app “raises a national security concern as the data of millions of Americans is exposed to Communist China,” adding that the app’s parent company “has a deceptive tool to mine sensitive personal information, including web browsing.”
The Supreme Court said the government’s national security concerns about the app outweighed free speech concerns related to shutting down the app, which is used by about 170 million US users a month.
TikTok said on social media on Sunday that it was “in the process of restoring service” after Mr. Trump said no one would face financial penalties for hosting TikTok while the service tries to find a way to comply with the law.
