Threats to TikTok workers are traced to L.A. man; standoff follows

Police have arrested a 33-year-old Hawthorne man in connection with a series of online threats directed against TikTok’s Culver City headquarters.

The Culver City Police Department said that TikTok employees received a threat on social media Friday, prompting security to evacuate the Bristol Parkway location.

Police traced the threat to Joseph Mayuyo and converged on his Hawthorne home Saturday, but he made more threats online and declared that he would not be taken alive, according to a police news release.

Crisis negotiators spent 90 minutes talking to him before he walked outside and surrendered, police said. He was booked on a charge of making criminal threats.

It was not clear from the release whether Mayuyo had any prior connection to the social media company.