Slow internet woes: Man sets fire to internet equipment, gets seven years in prison

Authorities in China have sentenced a man to seven years in prison for setting internet equipment on fire after becoming enraged by a slow internet connection.

According to NDTV, a man by the name of Lan in China said in a statement that the internet was so slow that he retaliated by destroying a public box containing optical fiber network cables.

In a court statement, details statated that “the man used a lighter to set a napkin he had on him on fire, then burned down a telecommunications box at a traffic intersection”.

Nearly 4,000 households and offices, including a public hospital, lost internet access for 28 to 50 hours as a result of the fire.

“After the incident, public security officials seized Lan’s instrument of crime — a lighter,” according to the court in Cenxi.

Lan was sentenced to seven years in prison for “disrupting public telecommunications facilities.”