Telegram’s core shortlink domain, t.me, was placed on “server hold” by the .me registry on July 13, dropping it from the global domain name system (DNS) and dead-ending every t.me link worldwide. Founder Pavel Durov appeared to learn about the outage in real time.
A Registry Kill SwitchIndustry publication Domain Name Wire observed that the domain had not expired and registration records show it paid up through May 2035, ruling out a simple lapse, adding:
[A server hold] is put in place by the registry, which suggests the registry has suspended the domain name. There is no word yet on what caused the suspension.
The .me extension is Montenegro’s country-code domain, marketed globally since 2008. It is operated by doMEn, a Montenegro-based venture whose partners include backend registry provider Identity Digital and Godaddy. The registry’s early partnership with Telegram made t.me the shortlink domain of record for the messenger, powering the t.me/username and t.me/channel links shared billions of times across the web.
Durov Caught off GuardHey @domainME, t.me links stopped working. Can you look into it?
He also noted that the company received no advance notice of the registry action, an unusual way for a platform with roughly a billion monthly active users to discover its main link infrastructure had been switched off.
The suspension also lands during a period of sustained legal pressure on Durov, who was reportedly questioned by French investigators for a fourth time last week in connection with his August 2024 arrest. No link between that probe and the domain action has been established, and possible explanations range from a legal or regulatory order to a policy dispute or plain administrative error.
Over the next 24 hours, it will be interesting to watch whether a statement from doMEn, Identity Digital, or Telegram itself surfaces, explaining the hold and a timeline for restoration.
