Telegram shortlink domain restored after OFAC compliance suspension

Telegram's t.me shortlink domain was temporarily suspended due to compliance with U.S. sanctions, according to the domain registrar DomainME. The outage, which began Monday, prevented users from accessing shared links for public groups. Telegram founder Pavel Durov confirmed the issue, stating that t.me links had stopped working.

DomainME, which manages the .me top-level domain, explained in an email that the domain was placed "on hold due to the OFAC compliance." OFAC, the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, imposes economic sanctions. The suspension occurred on the same day the U.S. Treasury sanctioned a VPN provider named First VPN, which authorities stated was used by cybercriminals for ransomware attacks. The Treasury's sanctions listing for First VPN included a link to its public group on Telegram using the t.me domain.

It is likely that DomainME suspended the entire t.me domain to comply with the new sanctions, rather than targeting the specific web address. U.S. companies, including domain registrars, face significant fines for non-adherence to sanctions laws. The "serverhold" block, which typically locks a domain offline, was lifted early Tuesday, and the t.me domain is now back online. Another Telegram domain, telegram.me, was not affected and remained operational.