The t.me domain has been administratively blocked at the registry level, causing Telegram short links to fail worldwide. The restriction follows a July 13 US sanctions list targeting Ukrainian provider First VPN Service.
Registry Status and DNS Resolution
The operator of the .me zone placed t.me in serverHold status, which removes the domain from the DNS system and prevents browser resolution. This administrative action stems from requirements set by the US Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). First VPN Service (1VPNS) was included in the sanctions list, with the Telegram channel t.me/FirstVPNService listed as one of its identifiers.Because the sanctions apply to the domain rather than individual pages, the entire t.me address space fell under the restriction instead of a single channel. The Telegram application continues to function normally, with the disruption limited exclusively to external short links. To maintain internal navigation, the messenger has temporarily routed redirects through the backup domain telegram.me.
Information regarding the registry status change and domain resolution was provided by GGM: iGaming News.