diff --git a/src/components/RichText.tsx b/src/components/RichText.tsx
index 9908679c57..eca0d7c635 100644
--- a/src/components/RichText.tsx
+++ b/src/components/RichText.tsx
@@ -11,6 +11,9 @@ import {RichTextTag} from '#/components/RichTextTag'
 import {Text, type TextProps} from '#/components/Typography'
 
 const WORD_WRAP = {wordWrap: 1}
+// lifted from facet detection in `RichText` impl, _without_ `gm` flags
+const URL_REGEX =
+  /(^|\s|\()((https?:\/\/[\S]+)|((?<domain>[a-z][a-z0-9]*(\.[a-z0-9]+)+)[\S]*))/i
 
 export type RichTextProps = TextStyleProp &
   Pick<TextProps, 'selectable' | 'onLayout' | 'onTextLayout'> & {
@@ -115,7 +118,8 @@ export function RichText({
         </ProfileHoverCard>,
       )
     } else if (link && AppBskyRichtextFacet.validateLink(link).success) {
-      if (disableLinks) {
+      const isValidLink = URL_REGEX.test(link.uri)
+      if (!isValidLink || disableLinks) {
         els.push(toShortUrl(segment.text))
       } else {
         els.push(