TikTok shutdown affects Lemon8, Capcut and Marvel Snap apps

While TikTok is at least partially available as of today, some of these other applications remain unavailable to U.S. users

By Nileena Sunil

American users of the mega-popular social media platform TikTok were shocked to find out that the platform had “gone dark” on Sunday. They were met with a message that said “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned.”

This initially caused panic among users, particularly content-creators, some of whom depended on the app for their livelihood. However, the ban was reversed in less than 24 hours, with U.S.-based users reporting accessibility from Sunday afternoon onwards. All this happened following the U.S. Supreme court upholding a law potentially banning the social media app, citing security concerns.

READ: Perplexity AI offers to merge with TikTok (January 20, 2025)

This also affected a number of other less popular and hence, less talked-about applications tied to ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok. While TikTok is at least partially available as of today, some of these other applications remain unavailable to U.S. users.

Lemon8 is a video-and-photo sharing app that has been compared to TikTok, Instagram, and Pinterest. It had been cited as a possible alternative to TikTok in the face of a possible ban, so users were disappointed to find out that Lemon8 was also down alongside TikTok.

In fact, Lemon8 remained inaccessible to U.S. users even after accessibility to TikTok was reinstated.

READ: Donald Trump declares ‘TikTok is back’ ahead of inauguration (January 20, 2025)

Marvel Snap, a digital collectible card game has also been affected. U.S.-based players trying to access the game have encountered a message saying “A law banning Marvel Snap has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use Marvel Snap right now. Rest assured we are working to restore our service.” Like Lemon8, Marvel Snap remains inaccessible from the U.S.

A similar message also pops up on trying to access Capcut, a free video editing app, from the U.S. In response to this, TikTok’s competitor—owned by Meta platforms—introduced a new video editing app of their own, called Edits. Other apps that became inaccessible to U.S. users include Gauth, a free AI-homework aid app, Hypic, a photo-editing app that makes use of AI, and Lark, an enterprise collaboration platform. Only time will tell if these apps would be restored for U.S. users soon.