diff --git a/files/helpers/regex.py b/files/helpers/regex.py
index 144de1a49..30a5c7dca 100644
--- a/files/helpers/regex.py
+++ b/files/helpers/regex.py
@@ -43,8 +43,8 @@ title_regex = re.compile("[^\w ]", flags=re.A)
 controversial_regex = re.compile('["> ](https:\/\/old\.reddit\.com/r/\w{3,20}\/comments\/[\w\-.#&/=\?@%+]{5,250})["< ]', flags=re.A)
 
 spoiler_regex = re.compile('\|\|(.+?)\|\|' + NOT_IN_CODE_OR_LINKS, flags=re.A)
-reddit_regex = re.compile('(^|\s|<p>|\()\/?(([ruRU])\/(\w|-){3,25})' + NOT_IN_CODE_OR_LINKS, flags=re.A)
-sub_regex = re.compile('(^|\s|<p>|\()\/?([hH]\/(\w|-){3,25})' + NOT_IN_CODE_OR_LINKS, flags=re.A)
+reddit_regex = re.compile('(?<!\w)\/?(([ruRU])\/(\w|-){3,25})' + NOT_IN_CODE_OR_LINKS, flags=re.A)
+sub_regex = re.compile('(?<!\w)\/?([hH]\/(\w|-){3,25})' + NOT_IN_CODE_OR_LINKS, flags=re.A)
 
 strikethrough_regex = re.compile('(^|\s|>|")~{1,2}([^~]+)~{1,2}' + NOT_IN_CODE_OR_LINKS, flags=re.A)
 
diff --git a/files/helpers/sanitize.py b/files/helpers/sanitize.py
index d1d829bf3..eb41e2faf 100644
--- a/files/helpers/sanitize.py
+++ b/files/helpers/sanitize.py
@@ -385,8 +385,8 @@ def sanitize(sanitized, golden=True, limit_pings=0, showmore=False, count_emojis
 	# replacing zero width characters, overlines, fake colons
 	sanitized = sanitized.replace('\u200e','').replace('\u200b','').replace("\ufeff", "").replace("\u033f","").replace("\u0589", ":")
 
-	sanitized = reddit_regex.sub(r'\1<a href="https://old.reddit.com/\2" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">/\2</a>', sanitized)
-	sanitized = sub_regex.sub(r'\1<a href="/\2">/\2</a>', sanitized)
+	sanitized = reddit_regex.sub(r'<a href="https://old.reddit.com/\1" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">/\1</a>', sanitized)
+	sanitized = sub_regex.sub(r'<a href="/\1">/\1</a>', sanitized)
 
 	v = getattr(g, 'v', None)