U.S. Treasury sanctions on a VPN service knocked out Telegram’s short-link domain worldwide
U.S. Treasury sanctions against VPN provider First VPN Service caused a global outage of Telegram's t.me domain on July 14, which was restored after several hours.
On July 14, Telegram's short-link domain t.me experienced a global outage. According to the Telegram channel teleLakel, which obtained an official comment from Identity Digital, the operator of the .me top-level domain, the blocking was requested by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Identity Digital confirmed the domain was blocked and said the registrar GoDaddy could provide additional information.
The day before, on July 13, the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions against VPN provider First VPN Service (1VPNS). Several web addresses were listed, including t.me/FirstVPNService. The Specially Designated Nationals list also named the service's administrator, Dmytro Rashevsky, a Ukrainian national. The Treasury stated that First VPN Service's main customers are cybercriminals and ransomware distributors, and Rashevsky marketed the service as keeping law enforcement at arm's length.
Tech outlet CyberSec Guru reported that the t.me domain was likely blocked by mistake. The domain itself is not under OFAC sanctions, and blocking just the channel t.me/FirstVPNService would have been impossible without Telegram's cooperation. The registry operator apparently never approached Telegram and instead complied with a formal request to block the entire domain.
On the afternoon of July 14, multiple outlets reported that the t.me domain was accessible again. Telegram's other domain, telegram.me, remained operational throughout the outage.
