diff --git a/td/telegram/MessageEntity.cpp b/td/telegram/MessageEntity.cpp
index 1576623f..4524c8ce 100644
--- a/td/telegram/MessageEntity.cpp
+++ b/td/telegram/MessageEntity.cpp
@@ -3473,6 +3473,8 @@ static Result<string> clean_input_string_with_entities(const string &text, vecto
                                        << entity->offset + entity->length);
   }
 
+  replace_offending_characters(result);
+
   return result;
 }
 
diff --git a/td/telegram/misc.cpp b/td/telegram/misc.cpp
index 9405df4a..e6d9e944 100644
--- a/td/telegram/misc.cpp
+++ b/td/telegram/misc.cpp
@@ -52,6 +52,20 @@ string clean_username(string str) {
   return trim(str);
 }
 
+void replace_offending_characters(string &str) {
+  // "(\xe2\x80\x8f|\xe2\x80\x8e){N}(\xe2\x80\x8f|\xe2\x80\x8e)" -> "(\xe2\x80\x8c){N}$2"
+  auto s = MutableSlice(str).ubegin();
+  for (size_t pos = 0; pos < str.size(); pos++) {
+    if (s[pos] == 0xe2 && s[pos + 1] == 0x80 && (s[pos + 2] == 0x8e || s[pos + 2] == 0x8f)) {
+      while (s[pos + 3] == 0xe2 && s[pos + 4] == 0x80 && (s[pos + 5] == 0x8e || s[pos + 5] == 0x8f)) {
+        s[pos + 2] = static_cast<unsigned char>(0x8c);
+        pos += 3;
+      }
+      pos += 2;
+    }
+  }
+}
+
 bool clean_input_string(string &str) {
   constexpr size_t LENGTH_LIMIT = 35000;  // server side limit
   if (!check_utf8(str)) {
@@ -133,6 +147,9 @@ bool clean_input_string(string &str) {
   }
 
   str.resize(new_size);
+
+  replace_offending_characters(str);
+
   return true;
 }
 
diff --git a/td/telegram/misc.h b/td/telegram/misc.h
index 2f033150..0b62e315 100644
--- a/td/telegram/misc.h
+++ b/td/telegram/misc.h
@@ -18,6 +18,9 @@ string clean_name(string str, size_t max_length) TD_WARN_UNUSED_RESULT;
 // prepares username/stickername for search
 string clean_username(string str) TD_WARN_UNUSED_RESULT;
 
+// replaces some offending characters without changing string length
+void replace_offending_characters(string &str);
+
 // removes control characters from the string, will fail if input string is not in UTF-8
 bool clean_input_string(string &str) TD_WARN_UNUSED_RESULT;
 
diff --git a/test/message_entities.cpp b/test/message_entities.cpp
index 9e1b5ab7..ae4b7a31 100644
--- a/test/message_entities.cpp
+++ b/test/message_entities.cpp
@@ -1006,6 +1006,14 @@ TEST(MessageEntities, fix_formatted_text) {
       }
     }
   }
+
+  check_fix_formatted_text(
+      "\xe2\x80\x8f\xe2\x80\x8f  \xe2\x80\x8e\xe2\x80\x8e\xe2\x80\x8e\xe2\x80\x8c \xe2\x80\x8f\xe2\x80\x8e "
+      "\xe2\x80\x8f",
+      {},
+      "\xe2\x80\x8c\xe2\x80\x8f  \xe2\x80\x8c\xe2\x80\x8c\xe2\x80\x8e\xe2\x80\x8c \xe2\x80\x8c\xe2\x80\x8e "
+      "\xe2\x80\x8f",
+      {});
 }
 
 static void check_parse_html(td::string text, const td::string &result, const td::vector<td::MessageEntity> &entities) {
diff --git a/test/string_cleaning.cpp b/test/string_cleaning.cpp
index 890c1a5b..4ac98fc2 100644
--- a/test/string_cleaning.cpp
+++ b/test/string_cleaning.cpp
@@ -66,6 +66,12 @@ TEST(StringCleaning, clean_input_string) {
   check_clean_input_string(
       "\xe2\x80\xa7\xe2\x80\xa8\xe2\x80\xa9\xe2\x80\xaa\xe2\x80\xab\xe2\x80\xac\xe2\x80\xad\xe2\x80\xae\xe2\x80\xaf",
       "\xe2\x80\xa7\xe2\x80\xaf", true);
+  check_clean_input_string(
+      "\xe2\x80\x8f\xe2\x80\x8f  \xe2\x80\x8e\xe2\x80\x8e\xe2\x80\x8e\xe2\x80\x8c \xe2\x80\x8f\xe2\x80\x8e "
+      "\xe2\x80\x8f",
+      "\xe2\x80\x8c\xe2\x80\x8f  \xe2\x80\x8c\xe2\x80\x8c\xe2\x80\x8e\xe2\x80\x8c \xe2\x80\x8c\xe2\x80\x8e "
+      "\xe2\x80\x8f",
+      true);
   check_clean_input_string("\xcc\xb3\xcc\xbf\xcc\x8a", "", true);
 }