Every t.me link on the internet stopped working today after Montenegro's .me registry placed Telegram's core shortlink domain on serverHold status, a registry-level action that removes the domain from the global DNS system entirely.
The change shows up in WHOIS records with an update timestamp of July 13, 2026. No public explanation has come from Telegram, the .me registry, or Identity Digital, the U.S. company that operates the technical backend for Montenegro's country-code domain.
Pavel Durov, Telegram's founder and CEO, acknowledged the outage on X by tagging the .me registry directly: "Hey @domainME, t.me links stopped working. Can you look into it?" The tone suggests Telegram may not have received any advance notice.
What serverHold Actually Does
A serverHold is applied at the registry level, not by the domain registrar. According to ICANN documentation, this status completely excludes a domain from name resolution regardless of how the service's own infrastructure is configured. When a browser tries to resolve t.me, DNS servers now return NXDOMAIN, treating the address as if it simply does not exist.
The Telegram app itself continues to function normally. The disruption specifically affects the web-based shortlinks that Telegram has used for years to share channel invites, group links, and user profiles. Every link formatted as t.me/username or t.me/channelname is now dead in browsers worldwide.
Notably, the telegram.me domain, which sits in the same .me zone with the same registrar, remains unaffected. This rules out any blanket action against Telegram's entire infrastructure and points to something specific about the t.me registration itself.
Why the .me Registry Matters
The .me domain is Montenegro's country-code top-level domain, but it has been marketed globally since 2008 for personal branding and URL shortening. The registry is operated by doMEn, a Montenegro-based joint venture whose partners include Identity Digital and GoDaddy. Google treats .me as a generic extension rather than a geographically targeted one.
The arrangement creates an unusual dependency. Telegram built its link-sharing infrastructure around a two-character domain owned by a small Balkan nation, managed by a consortium that includes American companies, and subject to Montenegrin law. WHOIS data shows the t.me domain is registered through GoDaddy with Google's nameservers and carries an expiration date of May 2035. The domain has not lapsed.
Timing Raises Questions
This disruption arrives during a sensitive period for Durov. French investigators questioned him for a fourth time last week in an ongoing case that dates back to his August 2024 arrest at Le Bourget airport. His attorneys say there is still no evidence supporting the original charges. France lifted his travel ban last November but the investigation remains open.
Whether the domain suspension has any connection to legal proceedings is unknown. A serverHold can be applied for various reasons: legal disputes, regulatory compliance orders, internal registry policy enforcement, or technical errors. Speculation has ranged from government intervention to a simple administrative mistake.
The stakes extend beyond Telegram's billion monthly active users. The .me registry also handles shortlinks for PayPal, WordPress, and Meta's family of apps including WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram. If registry-level actions can silently knock out a major platform's URL infrastructure without public notice, every company relying on country-code domains for critical services has a new risk to consider.
As of publication, neither doMEn nor Identity Digital has issued any statement. Telegram's silence beyond Durov's X post is also notable. Some users report that cached DNS entries may allow t.me links to continue working temporarily, but as caches expire globally, the outage will become universal.
This story is developing. Glitchwire will update as more information becomes available.
