Telegram’s short-link domain, t.me, stopped resolving on July 13, 2026. Links such as t.me/[username], t.me/[channelname], and group invite links stopped opening in web browsers.
“Hey @domainME, t.me links stopped working. Can you look into it?” Telegram founder Pavel Durov noticed the issue and posted on X, tagging the .me domain registry. At the time of writing this report, there is no official explanation from either Telegram or the .me registry.
What is a .ME domain? The.ME domain is the internet address for Montenegro, a small Mediterranean country with about 600,000 people. This country code top-level domain (ccTLD) doesn’t have any restrictions on who can use the domain.
How did we check the status of the t.me domain? To verify the domain’s status, using Claude, we ran two standard checks that anyone can use to inspect a domain’s registration records.
- nslookup: Name server lookup is a simple command that checks whether a domain resolves through DNS. We ran nslookup on t.me and got back “Non-existent domain,” meaning the DNS could not find the domain. View the full response of the command here.
- WHOIS command: This is also another standard lookup that shows a domain’s registration details and its current status. We ran a WHOIS check on t.me and found a status flag called “serverHold.” View the full response of the command here.
- RDAP: Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP) is a more detailed version of the same kind of Whois lookup. We ran an RDAP check on t.me, and it also showed “server hold,” along with a timestamp showing the status was last changed on July 13, 2026, at 7:24:55 PM (UTC). View the full response of the command here.
What we found: Both Whois and RDAP lookup checks resulted in t.me currently carrying a “server hold” status. This is a flag applied by the domain registry and not by Telegram or GoDaddy, Telegram’s domain registrar. Because the domain appears to be on registry hold, using a VPN would generally not bypass the issue.
The RDAP record also showed that the domain details were last updated on July 13, 2026, which roughly coincides with when Pavel Durov highlighted the issue on X. He posted on Jul 14, 2026, at 6:39 AM IST; over 5 hours later, the domain update was logged.
A couple of users on X pointed out the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control’s press release on Specially Designated Nationals (SDN). In that press release, which is also published on the same day as the t.me domain’s last log was registered (13 July), First VPN Service is blacklisted. According to the FBI’s May 2026 notice on First VPN Service, it was reportedly used by at least 25 ransomware groups. Among the URLs and email addresses specified under First VPN Service, t.me/FirstVPNService is one of them. However, there is no official confirmation that the OFAC…
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