- The US Treasury sanctioned First VPN Service for aiding ransomware gangs
- Complying with the sanctions, the .ME registry wrongly suspended Telegram's entire t.me domain
- The domain was restored roughly 19 hours later after Telegram CEO Pavel Durov flagged the issue online
If you clicked a Telegram link on Monday and stared at a blank screen, you weren't alone. Every shortlink starting with 't.me' suddenly vanished from the global internet, breaking group invites, profile shares, and channel links for roughly a billion users worldwide.