The t.me domain, used by the messaging service Telegram for short links, encountered a serverHold status on the evening of July 13. As a result, links in the format t.me... stopped opening for users. The WHOIS service recorded the domain's record update at 22:24 MSK.
The serverHold status is set by the registry operator of the domain zone. In the case of .me (the national domain of Montenegro), this is managed by the company doMEn. The registry excludes such domains from DNS, with reasons ranging from legal disputes to requests from authorized bodies. Notably, the alternative domain telegram.me has not been affected by these restrictions.
As of the time of publication, Telegram has not commented on the situation.