As of January 19th, 2025, TikTok is no longer operational in the United States, and it took a number of other popular apps with it. The law banning TikTok was passed by Congress in 2024 amid concerns of "national security", stemming from the app's connection to Chinese parent company ByteDance. Unfortunately for fans of Marvel Snap, the mega-popular deck-building game has also been taken down as an unforeseen victim of the ban.
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00:00As of January 19, 2025, TikTok is no longer operational in the United States, and it took
00:06a number of other popular apps with it. The law banning TikTok was passed by Congress
00:10in 2024 amid concerns of national security, stemming from the app's connection to Chinese
00:16parent company ByteDance.
00:17Unfortunately for fans of Marvel Snap, the mega-popular deck-building game has also been
00:22taken down as an unforeseen victim of the ban. Gamers were shocked when they attempted
00:27to log in to Marvel Snap late on Saturday evening, only to find that either they couldn't
00:31connect or they had an unexpected message waiting for them.
00:34A law banning Marvel Snap has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you
00:38can't use Marvel Snap right now. The message ends with a promise to get things sorted out
00:43and get the game running in the United States once again. This isn't the first time a game
00:47has been banned in the U.S., but the reason behind it is surprising.
00:51Marvel Snap has also disappeared from the App Store, and although some users are still
00:55able to find the listing for the game on Steam, they are unable to log in to play it.
00:59Don't worry if you're confused, you're not alone. Marvel Snap publisher Nuverse is actually
01:04owned by TikTok's parent company ByteDance, a fact that many Marvel Snap fans learned
01:08entirely too late. Since ByteDance's license to operate in the U.S. has been withdrawn,
01:13every other bit of software under its umbrella has been impacted.
01:17In addition to Marvel Snap, people on social media expressed shock at the fact that popular
01:21editing tool CapCut also ceased to operate in the U.S. at the same time, as well as multiple
01:26other games. Needless to say, the response has been fast and furious.
01:31Even before it began taking popular games with it, the law banning TikTok has been a
01:34controversial one. Supporters hope that it will protect users from potentially having
01:39their personal information shared with the Chinese government, while detractors argue
01:43that the ban infringes on Americans' First Amendment rights.
01:46Now that Marvel Snap has been caught up in the ban, gamers everywhere are freaking out.
01:50Many fans have expressed outrage over the amount of money they've spent in the game
01:54and are demanding refunds. Some are already claiming to be back in the game, using a VPN.
01:59Others are simply blown away by the fact that they had no heads-up about Marvel Snap going
02:03under, while some gamers are frustrated by the fact that this app ban was such a huge
02:08priority for the United States government.
02:10Marvel Snap streamers are trying to figure out what to do next. Perhaps no group was
02:14more surprised than Marvel Snap developer Second Dinner, which posted to X,
02:19Unfortunately, Marvel Snap is temporarily unavailable in U.S. app stores and is unavailable
02:24to play in the U.S. This outage is a surprise to us and wasn't planned. Marvel Snap isn't
02:28going anywhere. We're actively working on getting the game up as soon as possible, and
02:33we'll update you once we have more to share.
02:35It's unclear what the next step will be for ByteDance and Marvel Snap, but it does look
02:39like there's a potential save in the works. On Sunday, January 19th, President-elect Trump
02:44announced he planned an executive action after his inauguration to, quote,
02:48"...extend the period of time before the law's prohibitions take effect."
02:52This could, theoretically, give Marvel Snap a second chance in the market as well.