Having a slow internet can be enraging sometimes but there’s not much that can be done about it. However, that’s not the case in China, when a man surnamed Lan decided to set internet cables on fire over slow internet speed. The man was later charged for damaging public property.
The incident happened in June. Lan, a resident of the southern Guangxi region went to an internet cafe. According to the local authorities, he was irritated by the sluggish internet so he went to the telecommunications box at a traffic intersection. He set ablaze the equipment that was attached with optical fiber network cables with the help of a lighter. As per a local court in Cenxi, a small mountain city in the region, he set a napkin on fire and then used it to burn down the telecommunications box.
Just after the incident, Lan was arrested by public security officials and his lighter, his instrument of crime, was also seized by the authorities. His actions affected thousands of people in the province. Due to his actions around 4000 households as well as offices in the region had no internet for days.
Following his story, people were furious over the unnecessary inconvenience he has caused. Few users on Weibo, a prominent microblogging website in China called him a ‘big baby’ over the site. His case is an example of how internet addiction can be toxic yet manipulative at the same time.
Now, months after the incident he has been condemned for ravaging public property. A local court has sentenced him, a 7 year-long prison sentence. The court did justify his frustration with the internet speed but not his response towards it. According to the local court, he should have been rational instead of setting the telecommunications box on fire. He had committed the crime of destroying public telecommunications facilities and thus should be penalized as per the law.