Marvel Snap also gets banned in the USA due to its link with ByteDance

With the US law banning TikTok taking effect today, Apple and Google have removed TikTok from their respective app stores. Users are seeing a hopeful message that says, "We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned." CapCut, a popular video editing app owned by ByteDance, is also now offline in the US.

But that's not all—the ban has also impacted the digital card game Marvel Snap. The game, created by Second Dinner, wasn't expected to get caught up in the act. So what happened? Notably, the answer lies in ByteDance's connection to the game's publishing history. ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, was previously a publisher of Marvel Snap through its gaming wing, Nuverse.

Although ByteDance exited the gaming business in 2023, it appears that they retained some publishing ties with the game, likely leading to Marvel Snap being included in the ban. As of now, players trying to log in are met with a message similar to that of TikTok's notification. In a post on social media platform X, Marvel Snap's publisher, Second Dinner, said:

The interesting bit in Second Dinner's message is that there is no mention of President Donald Trump potentially intervening to reverse the ban. While TikTok remains optimistic that if an agreement is reached, TikTok and other affected apps, including Marvel Snap, could return to the US.

For now, there is no information on what the future holds for TikTok and all other ByteDance-owned apps in the US. Picture will only be clear, once President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20. Meanwhile, TikTok alternative apps like RedNote are seeing a massive surge in the number of users, with language learning app, Duolingo, also benefiting from the ban.