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▲ Telegram's t.me domain has been suspended(whois.com)
184 points by Tiberium 3 hours ago | 91 comments
▲sebastiennight 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

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

▲ars 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I would do something that isn't *.me, since it was them that suspended it.

▲walrus01 40 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

.is might be a choice, since archive.is continues to be available despite many legal threats

You don't have to be an Icelandic national to register a .is

▲pixel_popping 33 minutes ago | parent [-]

.is is a very resilient TLD indeed, and it's well known in some communities.

▲lbotos an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

I think you misunderstood -- OP is running op-s-domain.com/telegramchat -> redirect t.me.

They updated op-s-domain.com/telegramchat -> redirect telegram.me.

▲cmeacham98 35 minutes ago | parent [-]

I think you also misunderstood, they are suggesting OP redirect to a telegram domain that isn't on the .me TLD, as the other .me is potentially at risk of also being taken down.

▲lbotos 30 minutes ago | parent [-]

fair enough -- dunno what domains telegram uses

▲grayhatter 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I appreciate the idea, I'll happily adopt your SOP, seems pretty useful

thanks

▲RJSquirel an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I can't believe they use GoDaddy as a registrar.

▲Brushfire 18 minutes ago | parent [-]

insanity. it almost undercuts everything they do.

▲anigbrowl an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

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.

▲ilaksh an hour ago | parent | next [-]

But Telegram hasn't engaged in that, some of their users have.

I think the issue might be that although Telegram has a lot of abuse takedown activity, they do not permit access or direct action by authorities. If I recall, they have reiterated many times that some level or types of messages always remain private.

Maybe that's the issue is that a lot of illicit activity is going on in private channels and whether or not their filtering addresses it at all, authorities see the activity and have no access for court cases or direct action against it, so they can imagine it is quite rampant.

▲kajman 36 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

I always figured telegram got the screws turned on them all the time because their lack of E2E encryption meant it was viable to demand they proactively police the platform in the first place. Maybe Signal would just be outright blocked in these locales if it was anywhere near as popular, though.

▲hnlmorg 13 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Signal is already well known to governments. In fact a few years ago there was a report in the UK media about how some governments used signal instead of official channels like email and did so because of Signals disappearing messages feature (ie making those MPs less accountable).

▲milkshakes 17 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

in fact, telegram does support e2e encryption ("secret chats")

▲ivanmontillam 13 minutes ago | parent [-]

It does, but it's not enabled by default; and that's the point.

▲anigbrowl 11 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I'm not making an argument about who's right or whether these disputes have any merit, I'm just trying to guess who might have had the inclination and legal resources to make this happen.

▲axus 41 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Not every country has DMCA safe harbor for service providers. A crap sandwich may taste horrible but it has bread.

▲joe_mamba 20 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

>But Telegram hasn't engaged in that, some of their users have.

Yeah, but government workers just want a legal slam dunk and it's always easier to go after the platform where the crimes are being discussed, rather than after the individual users actually committing the crimes.

▲indolering an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Montenegro (.me) seems to be aligned with the EU. But I would have expected there to see a legal ruling in France before Montenegro would do this sort of thing.

I wouldn't be surprised if GoDaddy caved to request. They are known for giving up domains to anyone with a badge and a fax machine!

▲dylan604 12 minutes ago | parent [-]

Is the badge really that much of a requirement? I mean, if you have a fax machine, you must be a legit source to make that request.

▲water-data-dude 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

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.

https://www.icann.org/epp#clientRenewProhibited

▲ivanmontillam 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

But if you check the domain's expiration date, it's far away in year 2035.

To the best of my knowledge, a domain can only be renewed in advance for up to 10 years.

(that could be the reason for that status).

▲chrisweekly an hour ago | parent [-]

(2035 is less than 10 years from now)

▲ivanmontillam an hour ago | parent [-]

(Yes, but it expires at 2035-05-20. If you count years by rounding up to integers, there's not enough time room to renew it an additional year. It would make it 11 years.)

▲shishcat 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I think they just flagged all locks in their admin portal. Like this: https://imgur.com/a/zoTQbwn

▲michalpleban an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

The status that actually says the domain is suspended is serverHold.

▲markasoftware 12 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Its serverHold which means the .me registry took this action, not the registrar (GoDaddy).

▲haskman 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

We only recently started moving the Functional Programming India community from Telegram to Zulip. That decision is looking better and better!

▲Imustaskforhelp an hour ago | parent [-]

Zulip is amazing. Nothing against that but what are your thoughts on fluxer and the others (recently chatto seems interesting, matrix, stoat are interesting options as well).

Also awesome initiative by the way, how did you end up making it and I'd love to know some backstory about it actually as well.

▲kaladin-jasnah an hour ago | parent [-]

Not the original commenter, but Matrix is awful. I used it on and off, and self-hosted it too. It's slow, bloated (I'm pretty sure I tried other homeservers). The app UI/UX is not great either. The E2EE stuff got better by the end but adoption-wise I was able to get way more people on Signal.

▲Imustaskforhelp an hour ago | parent [-]

For matrix, I don't use the original client but rather cinny. This client is so good that I wish that other clients and it looks really good in UI/UX, honestly I have had some serious thoughts of porting this UI sometimes: https://cinny.in, so I would be curious what you think about this as well.

(Side note: Fractal and the matrix element fork called schildichat are interesting as well. It is also possible to run matrix in terminal for what its worth as well, and nhekochat is good as well. Fractal runs on gtk and nheko runs on qt. I do agree though that running matrix homservers is a bit bulky sometimes from what I have heard but the client scene is probably really good so I am curious what you think about cinny :-D )

▲kaladin-jasnah an hour ago | parent [-]

I used Cinny at some point, but the issue for me was the mobile client. I liked Cinny, but wasn't a huge fan of a web-based client. I think I tried Fractal and whatever KDE was working on and neither was polished at the time of use.

▲Imustaskforhelp 40 minutes ago | parent [-]

Hm yeah I understand, there were some issues in Fractal where it didn't support spaces sometime back (I am not sure about it right now), it was fun talking to the team at gnome though making fractal.

> I liked Cinny, but wasn't a huge fan of a web-based client.

I feel as if sacrifices must be made as Signal and most others are probably web based clients as well. Fractal probably comes as close to it tbh

> but the issue for me was the mobile client

Ah I see, I don't really run matrix on phone but yeah I understand what you mean, aren't there some clients like fluffychat and others for Android though? Certainly not as polished as Cinny I imagine but it should be workable (hopefully) from my time seeing some of its screenshots. another side nitpick of matrix protocol but I have heard from people that Matrix clients sometimes take battery consumption.

When I was making https://mirror.forum I had my fair share of trying various protocols and to be honest, I feel as if we have enough good open source solutions out there that the tech part just isn't the limiter anymore and FOSS solutions in general might be good enough but its the network effects which are the issues.

which is tangentially why I had built mirror.forum where you can add your discord, matrix, fluxer, stoat links all in one for a guy to join any of them by just changing the link from #discord to #fluxer among other things.

Though I do understand the overall frustration of wanting something which just works but Fluxer is an honestly good option as well and I would love to know if it fits your use case perhaps if not matrix, what do you think? IMO its a low hanging fruit to replace from discord to fluxer given how similar the overall UI/UX is. I also think that Fluxer also has a mobile client or is working on that.

▲ventegus 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I went here for an IP to write in /etc/hosts and no one has posted it yet :(

▲shishcat 2 hours ago | parent [-]

dig +short @ns-cloud-b1.googledomains.com t.me

149.154.167.99

there you go

▲bryant 21 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

They're in a position to get their own TLD (e.g .tg); they should probably do this and run their own supporting infrastructure for it at this point.

▲noxvilleza 12 minutes ago | parent [-]

.tg is already used by Togo, although .te is not taken.

▲RA2lover 7 minutes ago | parent [-]

two-letter TLDs are reserved for country codes and not available for private use.

▲codedude64 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I don't understand I visited the whois site and it seems all it's fine but I don't know if this match with the following cases.

- The site was suspended but now it's ok - The site was not suspended - There is other information about telegram suspended

▲pKropotkin 20 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

NEVER use godaddy!

▲orliesaurus 12 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

centralized dns is always going to give some people headaches, but works for 99.9% of the rest of the people

▲Tiberium 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Direct link to the registry to verify the domain status (JSON): https://rdap.identitydigital.services/rdap/domain/t.me, Ctrl+F for "server hold"

▲qurren 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Yep, I would never use a registrar called "go daddy". It always sounded like a registrar for noobs that will take adverse actions to "protect" you and this only confirms this.

▲Tiberium 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The "serverHold" status is not set by GoDaddy, but by the actual .ME registry https://domain.me/

GoDaddy could apply "clientHold" but not "serverHold"

▲glitchy99 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Weird. The .me registry specifically says there are no restrictions and even advertises Telegram.

▲loloquwowndueo 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

What’s your beef? The name? Because I’ve been super happy with porkbun but damn, that name… and then the official-sounding ones like network solutions are quite shady. don’t judge a registrar by its name I guess.

▲d3Xt3r an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Not the person you replied to, but GoDaddy are (or at least, were) pretty jnfamous for their sleazy and sexist ads, eg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi0AqS4e6NI

So I can't imagine any serious organisation wanting to do business with them, unless they're a sleazy organisation themselves.

Also see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_surrounding_GoDa...

▲cubefox an hour ago | parent [-]

The ad is not sexist, it's sexy/sexualized and humourous, which is something else. And of course it is from 2010, just before the great ... cultural shift.

▲qurren an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It just doesn't sound professional, and I wouldn't want some "daddy" in a garage in charge of my domain name.

▲yreg 21 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Also namecheap sounds shit, but afaik they have good reputation.

▲bawolff 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I mean, there was that whole elephant hunting thing...

▲Waterluvian 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It’s absolutely #%^*ing bizarre to me how many 500+ employee tech companies use it. I just don’t get it. I know IT isn’t web developers but they ought to at least have better opinions on this kind of thing?

▲tarr11 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Which do you recommend?

▲belorn 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I would recommend a registrar that would explain to the customer why they would not want a .me domain for anything critical unless the person lives in Montenegro and trust the Government of Montenegro to maintain a good and trust worthy registry.

Otherwise just use which ever registrar is cheapest and who you think will handle any quirks or shenanigans that registries may do to domains you own, and which own system and processes hold high enough standard for you.

▲drdexebtjl 34 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I’ve been happy with Gandi.net for years now. They’re based in France.

▲conception 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

porkbun are great

▲pibaker an hour ago | parent | next [-]

There is nothing Porkbun or any other registrar can do if Montenegro decides to suspend the domain, which seems to be what actually happened.

▲Drakim 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I also recommend porkbun

▲cute_boi 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Is it better than cloudflare?

▲lolinder 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Depends on what you mean by better.

I chose Porkbun because it's a small company with good prices, a good vibe, and all the tools that I need. Cloudflare was never going to be on the table because I don't want to feed the beast that is already swallowing the entire internet.

▲K0IN an hour ago | parent [-]

i use it too,can only recommend, also funny website btw.

▲5701652400 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

squarespace is legit. GCP cloud domains are moved to them.

▲arjie 18 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Never had any trouble with them, but also moving away from them is unnecessarily hard (the code sometimes takes a day to arrive) and they cover the entire interface with their paid hosting stuff which makes them a poor registrar. I ended up on them because of Google Domains selling off but got off them because very annoying to use.

▲lolinder 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I'd honestly be careful with squarespace. They are owned by private equity, advertise on countless YouTube channels, and at the same time their core market is under a looming threat from the AI companies.

You need your domain registrar to be stable and predictable. Their profile is not that.

▲rationalist 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Dynadot. One of the largest registrars, and very competitive pricing like Namecheap. They also have very good features.

▲SoftTalker 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I've never had a problem with Namecheap but I'm not sure they are really any better as I've never had a problem with GoDaddy either.

▲sebastiennight 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

My understanding is that both GoDaddy and Namecheap used to do domain front running[0] at the time I was registering my first handful of commercial domains, so I've always avoided even using their search engines.

I wonder if the practice still exists.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_tasting#Domain_name_fro...

▲deepspace 34 minutes ago | parent [-]

I don't believe Namecheap ever did that, unless that was in the distant past. Never had a problem with them.

▲glitchy99 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

My bank automatically blocks payments to Namecheap. When I had domains with them, I had to call and give prior approval for the exact amount I would be paying. My bank claimed it was because of a high number of fraudulent charges.

▲IAmGraydon 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Weird. I've been a customer for 15 years and never had any such problem.

▲kennywinker 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Namecheap got bought by private equity fairly recently, so i switched away from them. Wouldn’t recommend starting with them just in time for the enshittification to start.

▲lolinder 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Their prices had already been going up for a few years before that, which finally pushed me off them starting around August of last year. I'm about to swap my final few domains over this month before they renew.

Porkbun has been great so far. Easy to use, refreshingly minimal, and good prices.

▲konart 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I'm quite comfortable with Netim

▲IAmGraydon 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Cloudflare

▲axus 33 minutes ago | parent [-]

So far so good, for personal use; they have the lowest renewal prices for top level domains.

▲s13k 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

porkbun

▲neverusingit 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Stupid fucking name

▲qurren 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

AWS Route53 or Namecheap

▲yakohere 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I stored all of my user images links with t.me and on my telegram mini app all users profile don't show the image. Switching to telegram.me

▲ars 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That's not likely to help, it was the .me people that suspended it, they will likely do the same with telegram.me

▲yakohere 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

for a second I thought i was hacked

▲dgellow 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Seems to be working fine? What does suspended imply here?

▲Tiberium 2 hours ago | parent [-]

It might be working fine for you if the DNS server you're using hasn't propagated this change yet. The Google DNS server has: https://dns.google/query?name=t.me&rr_type=A&ecs=

Suspended means the "serverHold" status. I haven't found any official blog post/announcement yet, but the status is unambiguous, and the fact that it happened to one of the Telegram's main short links means that it might be related to legal matters.

▲NDlurker 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Any explanation?

▲withinrafael an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Didn't t.me also support showing previews of entire channels? Perhaps they got hit with a take-down of sorts due to content (e.g., CSAM) on any particular channel?

▲monkeywork 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

someone enforcing a min character policy on them?

▲shishcat 2 hours ago | parent [-]

No. There are still many 1 char .ME domains available, and they've always costed an high price. https://imgur.com/a/0NL7oA6

▲shishcat 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

serverHold means like "suspicious activity, domain is administratively held and taken off dns"

▲EGreg 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This is what the problem is with DNS.

▲petcat 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Telegram was always shady as hell.