diff --git a/lib/oneboxer.rb b/lib/oneboxer.rb
index a9bdabdddf5..3bf526a57f4 100644
--- a/lib/oneboxer.rb
+++ b/lib/oneboxer.rb
@@ -170,7 +170,7 @@ module Oneboxer
   end
 
   def self.onebox_raw(url, opts = {})
-    url = URI(url).to_s
+    url = UrlHelper.escape_uri(url).to_s
     local_onebox(url, opts) || external_onebox(url)
   rescue => e
     # no point warning here, just cause we have an issue oneboxing a url
@@ -191,7 +191,7 @@ module Oneboxer
       when "list"    then local_category_html(url, route)
       end
 
-    html = html.presence || "<a href='#{url}'>#{url}</a>"
+    html = html.presence || "<a href='#{URI(url).to_s}'>#{URI(url).to_s}</a>"
     { onebox: html, preview: html }
   end
 
diff --git a/lib/url_helper.rb b/lib/url_helper.rb
index 4b2ad9106c8..885c6ee7675 100644
--- a/lib/url_helper.rb
+++ b/lib/url_helper.rb
@@ -60,11 +60,9 @@ class UrlHelper
     self.absolute(Upload.secure_media_url_from_upload_url(url), nil)
   end
 
-  # Prevents double URL encode
-  # https://stackoverflow.com/a/37599235
   def self.escape_uri(uri)
     return uri if s3_presigned_url?(uri)
-    UrlHelper.encode_component(CGI.unescapeHTML(UrlHelper.unencode(uri)))
+    Addressable::URI.normalized_encode(uri)
   end
 
   def self.rails_route_from_url(url)
diff --git a/spec/components/final_destination_spec.rb b/spec/components/final_destination_spec.rb
index ff61289e8af..585ca610976 100644
--- a/spec/components/final_destination_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/components/final_destination_spec.rb
@@ -463,7 +463,7 @@ describe FinalDestination do
       expect(fd(fragment_url).escape_url.to_s).to eq(fragment_url)
 
       expect(fd("https://eviltrout.com?s=180&#038;d=mm&#038;r=g").escape_url.to_s)
-        .to eq("https://eviltrout.com?s=180&d=mm&r=g")
+        .to eq("https://eviltrout.com?s=180&#038;d=mm&%23038;r=g")
 
       expect(fd("http://example.com/?a=\11\15").escape_url.to_s).to eq("http://example.com/?a=%09%0D")
 
diff --git a/spec/components/url_helper_spec.rb b/spec/components/url_helper_spec.rb
index 8328cec9b96..0d8afc95981 100644
--- a/spec/components/url_helper_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/components/url_helper_spec.rb
@@ -114,11 +114,16 @@ describe UrlHelper do
       expect(url).to eq('http://example.com/%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%87%DB%8C')
     end
 
-    it "doesn't escape already escaped chars" do
+    it "doesn't escape already escaped chars (space)" do
       url = UrlHelper.escape_uri('http://example.com/foo%20bar/foo bar/')
       expect(url).to eq('http://example.com/foo%20bar/foo%20bar/')
     end
 
+    it "doesn't escape already escaped chars (hash)" do
+      url = UrlHelper.escape_uri('https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=en.uk%23holiday%40group.v.calendar.google.com&ctz=Europe%2FLondon')
+      expect(url).to eq('https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=en.uk%23holiday@group.v.calendar.google.com&ctz=Europe/London')
+    end
+
     it "doesn't escape S3 presigned URLs" do
       # both of these were originally real presigned URLs and have had all
       # sensitive information stripped
diff --git a/spec/models/topic_embed_spec.rb b/spec/models/topic_embed_spec.rb
index d3dc1567b1a..9cf293a9c83 100644
--- a/spec/models/topic_embed_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/models/topic_embed_spec.rb
@@ -349,9 +349,9 @@ describe TopicEmbed do
     let(:invalid_url) { 'http://source.com/#double#anchor' }
     let(:contents) { "hello world new post <a href='/hello'>hello</a>" }
 
-    it "does not attempt absolutizing on a bad URI" do
+    it "handles badly formed URIs" do
       raw = TopicEmbed.absolutize_urls(invalid_url, contents)
-      expect(raw).to eq(contents)
+      expect(raw).to eq("hello world new post <a href=\"http://source.com/hello\">hello</a>")
     end
   end