diff --git a/files/helpers/const.py b/files/helpers/const.py
index 6871ff9c9..82b8a9496 100644
--- a/files/helpers/const.py
+++ b/files/helpers/const.py
@@ -715,8 +715,8 @@ email_regex = re.compile('([A-Za-z0-9]+[.-_])*[A-Za-z0-9]+@[A-Za-z0-9-]+(\.[A-Z|
 utm_regex = re.compile('utm_[a-z]+=[a-z0-9_]+&', flags=re.A)
 utm_regex2 = re.compile('[?&]utm_[a-z]+=[a-z0-9_]+', flags=re.A)
 
-slur_regex = regex.compile(f"(?<!<(a|img) [^<]*)({single_words})", flags=regex.I|regex.A)
-slur_regex_upper = regex.compile(f"(?<!<(a|img) [^<]*)({single_words.upper()})", flags=regex.A)
+slur_regex = re.compile(f"({single_words})(?![^<]*<\/(a|img))", flags=re.I|re.A)
+slur_regex_upper = re.compile(f"({single_words.upper()})(?![^<]*<\/(a|img))", flags=re.A)
 torture_regex = re.compile('(^|\s)(i|me) ', flags=re.I|re.A)
 torture_regex2 = re.compile("(^|\s)i'm ", flags=re.I|re.A)
 
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 4932922d8..72acaa12c 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -18,7 +18,6 @@ psutil
 pyotp
 qrcode
 redis
-regex
 requests
 SQLAlchemy
 psycopg2-binary