Is WhatsApp blocking links to rival messaging application Telegram?

orat.io co-founder and CEO Bernhard Hauser reported in a blog post that links to Telegram are showing up as plain text on WhatsApp, meaning that users cannot click through, adding that those links also can’t be copied to other apps or browsers, rendering them useless.

Links that were shortened with bit.ly were functional, however, according to Hauser.

Hauser tried the reverse and found that WhatsApp links worked fine on Telegram.

TechCrunch reported that the issue only seems to be affecting WhatsApp’s Android app, and not its iOS offering, and it shared a tweet from Android developer Jernej Virag, which read:

#WhatsApp code decompilation actually shows that they target all domains with “telegram” in it specifically.

#WhatsApp code decompilation actually shows that they target all domains with “telegram” in it specifically. pic.twitter.com/cW6vQU4j2f — Jernej Virag (@jernejv) December 1, 2015

Adding to the strange situation, Telegram said on its website that its Facebook page has been taken down without explanation.

Readers: Is something fishy going on?