diff --git a/internal/tengo/outmessage.tengo b/internal/tengo/outmessage.tengo
index d218088a..2cbb8a22 100644
--- a/internal/tengo/outmessage.tengo
+++ b/internal/tengo/outmessage.tengo
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ text := import("text")
 
 // start - strip irc colors 
 // if we're not sending to an irc bridge we strip the IRC colors
-if inProtocol == "irc" {
+if inProtocol == "irc" && outProtocol != "irc" {
     re := text.re_compile(`\x03(?:\d{1,2}(?:,\d{1,2})?)?|[[:cntrl:]]`)
     msgText=re.replace(msgText,"")
 }