VPN Crackdown Shuts Down Telegram's t.me Domain

A US crackdown on a VPN service, First VPN Service, led to an accidental outage of Telegram's t.me domain. The US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned the VPN's alleged administrator and related entities on the same day the t.me domain became inaccessible. This action was part of OFAC's compliance efforts. The .me domain registry operator placed t.me on a 'serverHold' status, effectively removing it from the internet.

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov highlighted the issue, and DomainME, the .me TLD registry, later confirmed the 'serverHold' was due to OFAC compliance but restored the domain. The FBI had previously issued warnings that at least 25 ransomware groups were using First VPN Service, which was advertised on dark web forums catering to cyber criminals. The FBI linked the service to botnets, DDoS attacks, scams, and hacking activities.