diff --git a/app/helpers/markup_helper.rb b/app/helpers/markup_helper.rb
index e2524938e10f161d3023ba653b3cf65c81c7d018..e1e756c2f4ce6c79a22c328bb850dd02287a485c 100644
--- a/app/helpers/markup_helper.rb
+++ b/app/helpers/markup_helper.rb
@@ -51,12 +51,15 @@ def link_to_html(redacted, url, html_options = {})
       text = fragment.children[0].text
       fragment.children[0].replace(link_to(text, url, html_options))
     else
-      # Traverse the fragment's first generation of children looking for pure
-      # text, wrapping anything found in the requested link
+      # Traverse the fragment's first generation of children looking for
+      # either pure text or emojis, wrapping anything found in the
+      # requested link
       fragment.children.each do |node|
-        next unless node.text?
-
-        node.replace(link_to(node.text, url, html_options))
+        if node.text?
+          node.replace(link_to(node.text, url, html_options))
+        elsif node.name == 'gl-emoji'
+          node.replace(link_to(node.to_html.html_safe, url, html_options))
+        end
       end
     end
 
diff --git a/changelogs/unreleased/harishsr-emoticon-commit-links.yml b/changelogs/unreleased/harishsr-emoticon-commit-links.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..0ad9dd1e101e48a2241a23885c9d0489166406c0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/unreleased/harishsr-emoticon-commit-links.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+title: Allow emojis to be linkable
+merge_request: 18014
+author:
+type: fixed
diff --git a/spec/helpers/markup_helper_spec.rb b/spec/helpers/markup_helper_spec.rb
index 32851249b2e25e488f0278e9825d8daece6e98e2..683c04428abdc0b27d2803d559b5bd2d27b81794 100644
--- a/spec/helpers/markup_helper_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/helpers/markup_helper_spec.rb
@@ -210,7 +210,7 @@
     it 'replaces commit message with emoji to link' do
       actual = link_to_markdown(':book: Book', '/foo')
       expect(actual)
-        .to eq '<gl-emoji title="open book" data-name="book" data-unicode-version="6.0">📖</gl-emoji><a href="/foo"> Book</a>'
+        .to eq '<a href="/foo"><gl-emoji title="open book" data-name="book" data-unicode-version="6.0">📖</gl-emoji></a><a href="/foo"> Book</a>'
     end
   end
 
@@ -232,6 +232,12 @@
       expect(doc.css('a')[0].attr('href')).to eq link
       expect(doc.css('a')[0].text).to eq 'This should finally fix '
     end
+
+    it "escapes HTML passed as an emoji" do
+      rendered = '<gl-emoji>&lt;div class="test"&gt;test&lt;/div&gt;</gl-emoji>'
+      expect(helper.link_to_html(rendered, '/foo'))
+        .to eq '<a href="/foo"><gl-emoji>&lt;div class="test"&gt;test&lt;/div&gt;</gl-emoji></a>'
+    end
   end
 
   describe '#render_wiki_content' do