Telegram's t.me domain stops working; founder requests investigation
Telegram's short-link domain, t.me, ceased functioning on July 13, 2026, preventing users from accessing links. Founder Pavel Durov has asked the domain registry to investigate the issue.
Messaging application Telegram's short-link domain, t.me, stopped resolving on July 13, 2026. The issue rendered web browsers unable to open links using the t.me/[username], t.me/[channelname], or group invite formats.
Pavel Durov, Telegram's founder, publicly flagged the problem on X (formerly Twitter) on July 14, 2026, tagging the .me domain registry and requesting they investigate the cause of the domain's malfunction. As of this report, no official explanation has been provided by either Telegram or the .me registry.
Technical checks revealed that the t.me domain was in a "serverHold" status, applied by the domain registrar. This status was evident in both WHOIS and RDAP records and prevented the domain from resolving through the DNS system. The status was last updated on July 13, 2026, coinciding with the timeframe when Durov reported the issue.
Further speculation suggests a possible connection to a listing by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) around the same time. The listing reportedly included a VPN service with t.me/FirstVPNService among its specified URLs. However, there has been no official confirmation linking the OFAC action directly to the t.me domain's malfunction.