U.S. Treasury sanctions on a VPN service knocked out Telegram’s short-link domain worldwide

On July 14, Telegram experienced a worldwide outage due to U.S. Treasury Department sanctions targeting a VPN service that was used by Identity Digital, the company managing Telegram's .me domain. The sanctions disrupted access to Telegram's short-link domain, affecting users globally. This incident highlights the vulnerability of digital platforms reliant on international infrastructure, especially when geopolitical tensions impact sanctioned entities. The move underscores the potential for sanctions to have far-reaching consequences beyond the targeted entities.