US SANCTIONS TRIGGER ACCIDENTAL SHUTDOWN OF TELEGRAM SHORTLINKS

The .me domain registry suspended Telegram's t.me domain on 13 July following United States Treasury Department sanctions against First VPN Service, a proxy network used by ransomware operators. The suspension rendered roughly one billion Telegram users unable to access shortlinks for group invites, profile shares and channel links. The domain was restored approximately 19 hours later after Telegram chief executive Pavel Durov raised the issue publicly. The outage resulted from collateral damage rather than a technical failure or cyberattack.

The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control published a sanctions list that included a link to First VPN Service's public Telegram support channel at t.me/FirstVPNService. Domain registries must comply rapidly with sanctions under international compliance rules. Identity Digital, which manages the technical backend for the .me domain, confirmed the blocking occurred at OFAC's request. However, domain registries cannot selectively disable individual webpages or channels within a domain, so the Montenegro-based Domain.Me registry applied a "serverHold" status to Telegram's entire t.me domain, removing it from the global Domain Name System. The core Telegram application continued to function, and the older telegram.me domain remained active.

European law enforcement dismantled First VPN Service in May following a years-long investigation, having determined the network actively courted cybercriminals with promises of anonymity. The incident illustrates the difficulties regulators face in targeting specific infrastructure without disrupting legitimate services that operate on shared technical systems. Telegram's swift restoration of the domain followed public notification of the suspension.