Telegram's t.me Domain Suspended: What the Whois Data Reveals
Telegram's t.me domain has been suspended
I noticed that Telegram's t.me domain has been suspended, as confirmed by the latest Whois data showing a serverHold status. The domain, registered through GoDaddy and protected by Domains By Proxy, is currently restricted from deletion, renewal, and transfer. This sudden suspension impacts access to a major communication platform, raising questions about the underlying reasons behind this technical hold.
The domain status serverHold indicates a critical suspension that blocks all standard operations until the issue is resolved.
- sebastiennight
Of course we launched our Telegram channel just this weekend, so I am feeling pretty happy that I enforced a 15-year old SOP that says "never email links to 3rd-party domains ; always use a redirect"...
Swapping the redirect now for telegram.me, which hopefully won't go down simultaneously
- shishcat
I found this post:
"I contacted Identity Digital, the registry operator for the .ME domain zone, to request the reason why t.me was placed on "serverHold".
The company has now responded and confirmed that the domain was suspended due to OFAC-related compliance requirements.
The domain t.me has been placed on serverHold due to OFAC-related compliance requirements
Identity Digital also stated that, under its agreements with accredited registrars, it cannot provide further details directly to third parties. Any additional communication regarding the registry action must go through the domain's registrar, GoDaddy." [weird response, this is a serverHold, not a client lock]
As you can see, the Montenegrin government is NOT at fault. It’s a decision made by the two biggest stakeholders in the .ME registry, which together hold over 70%: the American companies GoDaddy and Identity Digital. In my opinion, it’s extremely sad that the countries managing TLDs have so little autonomy and are also constantly accused of doing wrong when it’s not their fault.
- RJSquirel
I can't believe they use GoDaddy as a registrar.
- water-data-dude
You can read an explanation of the status codes on the icann website.
The explanation for clientRenewProhibited was interesting:
"This status code tells your domain's registry to reject requests to renew your domain. It is an uncommon status that is usually enacted during legal disputes or when your domain is subject to deletion."
Similar language for some of the other statuses like serverDeleteProhibited.
- anigbrowl
Telegram is currently the target of legal/regulatory investigations by Russia (alleged extremism), France (likewise), and India (alleged facilitation of national exam leaking/cheating). I'm guessing the latter since it's the most recent and arguably has the most fiscal heft.
Also very surprised to see Telegram was reliant on GoDaddy, notorious for its lack of transparency.
- haskman
We only recently started moving the Functional Programming India community from Telegram to Zulip. That decision is looking better and better!
- ventegus
I went here for an IP to write in /etc/hosts and no one has posted it yet :(
- markasoftware
Its serverHold which means the .me registry took this action, not the registrar (GoDaddy).