Telegram's t.me domain restored after sanctions-related suspension

Telegram’s shortlink domain came back online early Tuesday after a daylong suspension that cut off one-click links into chats, channels and bots. The outage did not break Telegram’s app, but it stopped a core piece of the service from resolving normally.

Pavel Durov posted on X that the links had "stopped working." Montenegro-based DomainME, the registrar that manages the .me domain, put the domain on hold due to OFAC compliance and later restored it. The domain had been placed on serverhold status, a registrar action that removes a domain from normal DNS resolution until the hold is lifted.

The disruption came as the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned First VPN Service, also known as 1VPNS, its administrator Dmytro Rashevskyi and Yegeniy Vladimirovich Silayev on July 13, 2026. Treasury targeted infrastructure that supported ransomware activity, coordinated the action with the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, and followed a May 2026 takedown of 1VPNS infrastructure by European law enforcement with FBI support. The U.S. Department of State separately sanctioned one entity and two individuals for providing critical support to ransomware groups.

Once a username is set, a shortlink can open a chat automatically, and public channels use shortlinks that can be shared on social networks and in print. That makes the domain a distribution layer for journalists, activists, businesses and diaspora communities.

An alternate Telegram domain stayed online during the disruption.