Domain suspended, leading to outages [updated] — Telegram’s t.me

T.me shows a Server Hold status.

[Update: t.me is back online. The .me registry stated it was on hold “due to OFAC compliance”, referring to the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets. Since t.me is a URL shortener, one of the URLs on the serve led to a firm on the OFAC list.]

A critical domain name for messaging app Telegram has been suspended.

The current status for t.me shows it’s in a Server Hold, which prevents the domain name from resolving.

A server hold status is put in place by the registry, which suggests the registry has suspended the domain name.

.Me is the country code domain name for Montenegro, but it has been commercialized based on its generic meaning.

While Identity Digital handles the backend registry for the domain, the business is managed by an organization in Montenegro.

Telegram uses t.me as a short link for sending people to places in the app. Usernames are in the format t.me/username, channels are t.me/channelname, etc.

Interestingly, the .me registry has a partnership with Telegram, which led to t.me becoming the shortlink domain of record for Telegram.

No word yet on what caused the suspension.