A representative of the .me domain zone administration commented on Twitter about the situation regarding the ban of the t.me domain, which belongs to Telegram:
The .ME Registry works closely with law enforcement to monitor and mitigate issues across the .ME domain in accordance with applicable laws, including sanctions requirements.
On 13 July, First VPN Service (1VPNS) was included as a sanctioned entity by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. A Telegram channel using the t.me domain was among 1VPNS identified infrastructure. Accordingly, the t.me domain was suspended.
On 14 July, Telegram provided confirmation that it had removed its links and affiliations with 1VPNS. Once the confirmation was reviewed and verified, the suspension was removed from the t.me domain.
We appreciate Telegram’s prompt cooperation in resolving this matter.
It is unclear from the comment whether the .me administration evaluated the appropriateness of blocking the entire domain of a major social platform and whether the registry will resort to such methods in the future.
As a reminder, on July 13, the .me registry disabled the DNS records for the t.me domain without any public statements from the zone administration or Telegram. On July 14, Identity Digital support explained the ban as compliance with OFAC requirements, and a link to a Telegram channel was found in the service's sanctions lists, which the messenger soon deleted, after which the domain was restored.
The .me zone is allocated to the government of Montenegro, but on its behalf, the infrastructure is managed by a joint venture between Identity Digital, GoDaddy, and the local company ME-net.
#outages #bans