Police say they’ve arrested a suspect allegedly related to a number of on-line threats that led TikTok to evacuate its headquarters close to Los Angeles on Friday.
A press launch from the Culver Metropolis Police Division says that TikTok workers reported receiving a number of threats, throughout varied social media platforms, from 33-year-old Hawthorne resident Joseph Mayuyo. After a further message threatened TikTok’s Culver Metropolis headquarters, police say firm safety evacuated the workplace “out of an abundance of warning.”
Police then investigated Mayuyo’s house, based on the press launch. In the course of the investigation, he allegedly posted further threatening statements, together with one declaring that he wouldn’t be taken alive. Detectives obtained search and arrest warrants, they usually negotiated with Mayuyo for 90 minutes earlier than he voluntarily exited his house and was taken into custody, the police division says.
Enterprise Insider reviews that one TikTok worker described the threats as “actually scary,” whereas one other was involved that they appeared to particularly goal the e-commerce division.
Mayuyo’s X account has reportedly been suspended for violating the platform’s hateful content material coverage. A Medium account beneath his identify revealed a publish in July criticizing TikTokShop USA as a “rip-off.”
TechCrunch has reached out to TikTok for remark. Within the press launch, the police division praises TikTok’s safety group “for his or her fast motion, collaboration, and professionalism all through this case.”
This arrest comes as TikTok’s U.S. operations are being spun out from Chinese language proprietor ByteDance as a brand new three way partnership with a brand new board of administrators. President Donald Trump, who has been speaking and posting concerning the deal for a lot of months, not too long ago signed an govt order approving the sale.
Techcrunch occasion
San Francisco
|
October 27-29, 2025
