README

Starting in WordPress 4.7.4 and 5.1, WordPress now automatically adds rel="noopener noreferrer to external links that open in a new window (e.g. _blank) when adding a link from TinyMCE (4.7.4) as well as on post save (5.1). With the introduction of it passing your content through a filter on post save, it is no longer possible to publish a post without the tags even when manually removing them.

While I 100% endorse this behavior deeming the potential security concerns when not including these tags (especially noopener), this can lead to unwanted behavior on URL's such as affiliate and referral links due to a variety of networks poor implementation of tracking.

If you are not using an advertiser network that has the potential issues stated above, you should not be using this. Otherwise, please use this with caution and for the safety of you and your users, please add rel="noopener noreferrer" on outbound links manually that are not affiliate-related.

Installation

Composer

$ composer require log1x/allow-unsafe-links

Manually

Download and install the plugin as you would any other WordPress plugin.

Usage

Once activated, you're good to go. For existing posts, you will need to go through and manually remove the rel="noopener noreferrer" on your URL's and re-save.

This can also be done via wp-cli using search-replace such as:

$ wp search-replace ' rel="noopener noreferrer" ' ''

License

Allow Unsafe Links is provided under the MIT License.