Telegram’s t.me short-link domain has been placed into serverHold status at the registry level, causing invite links, channel links, and usernames to stop resolving globally. Unlike an application outage, a serverHold status removes a domain from DNS resolution entirely, making it effectively disappear from the Internet until the status is lifted
Tldr: they don’t know the official reason, the article is just speculation. But they think it was an error, it wasn’t intended againt telegram
OFAC published a Recent Actions entry dated July 13, 2026, the same day the serverHold status appeared, titled “Cyber-related Designations; Cuba Designations; Issuance of Cuba-related Frequently Asked Question.” […] Buried in that same entity list is the actual connection: FIRST VPN SERVICE, also known as 1VPNS or FVPNS, a Dnipro-based operation OFAC designated under the CYBER4 program. The SDN entry lists its identifying infrastructure, including several standalone websites (1vpns.com, 1vpns.net, 1vpns.org, 1jabber.com) and one more entry alongside them: an alternate website listed as t.me/FirstVPNService. […] To be clear about where the evidence stops: OFAC’s own filing does not mention t.me, the serverHold status, or Telegram at all. Nobody at Treasury, Identity Digital, doMEn, or Telegram has confirmed this is the actual trigger.
Yup. IdentityDigital has confirmed its due to OFAC compliance. Presumably due to telegram not complying with the takedown order of the channel, registry (IdentityDigital) Was forced to suspend the entire t.me domain for compliance