UPD: The t.me domain is back online after a temporary block. Links to Telegram channels, posts, and profiles are available again. Full restoration across all devices may take up to 24 hours.

Telegram's short-link domain t.me stopped resolving in browsers worldwide on July 14 after the domain was placed on serverHold, a registry-level status that removes a domain from DNS. Public WHOIS data shows the status was added after an update on July 13, while the domain itself remains registered until 2035.

Telegram's core app infrastructure continued to work, and links opened inside Telegram clients were still handled correctly. As a workaround, Telegram began using telegram.me links in its apps while t.me was unavailable.

No official public explanation has been issued by Telegram or the .me registry operator. Pavel Durov publicly asked the .me domain account on X to look into the issue, while media reports pointed to possible compliance or legal triggers. One relevant context is a July 13 OFAC sanctions update that listed a Telegram channel URL connected to FIRST VPN SERVICE, although this does not by itself confirm why the entire t.me domain was put on hold.

For advertisers and channel owners, the incident is a useful reminder to check critical Telegram links in campaigns, landing pages, UTM tracking, and creative assets. Until t.me resolution is stable again, telegram.me can be used as a temporary fallback for external placements.

Source links:

WHOIS record for t.me: https://www.whois.com/whois/t.me
ICANN explanation of serverHold:https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/epp-status-codes-2014-06-16-en
OFAC July 13 update: https://ofac.treasury.gov/recent-actions/20260713
Pavel Durov's X post, cited by CyberInsider: https://cyberinsider.com/telegrams-t-me-domain-suspended-at-the-registry-level-breaking-links-worldwide/
Habr report on Telegram switching to telegram.me: https://habr.com/ru/news/1058822/

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Telegram t.me Links Outage