diff --git a/app/lib/emoji_formatter.rb b/app/lib/emoji_formatter.rb
index 15b98dc57e..86e3aa0192 100644
--- a/app/lib/emoji_formatter.rb
+++ b/app/lib/emoji_formatter.rb
@@ -3,8 +3,6 @@
 class EmojiFormatter
   include RoutingHelper
 
-  DISALLOWED_BOUNDING_REGEX = /[[:alnum:]:]/
-
   attr_reader :html, :custom_emojis, :options
 
   # @param [ActiveSupport::SafeBuffer] html
@@ -39,15 +37,14 @@ class EmojiFormatter
         if inside_shortname && text[i] == ':'
           inside_shortname = false
           shortcode = text[shortname_start_index + 1..i - 1]
-          char_after = text[i + 1]
 
-          next unless (char_after.nil? || !DISALLOWED_BOUNDING_REGEX.match?(char_after)) && (emoji = emoji_map[shortcode])
+          next unless (emoji = emoji_map[shortcode])
 
           result << Nokogiri::XML::Text.new(text[last_index..shortname_start_index - 1], tree.document) if shortname_start_index.positive?
           result << Nokogiri::HTML.fragment(tag_for_emoji(shortcode, emoji))
 
           last_index = i + 1
-        elsif text[i] == ':' && (i.zero? || !DISALLOWED_BOUNDING_REGEX.match?(text[i - 1]))
+        elsif text[i] == ':'
           inside_shortname = true
           shortname_start_index = i
         end
diff --git a/app/models/custom_emoji.rb b/app/models/custom_emoji.rb
index e47ade4795..dbb4066c63 100644
--- a/app/models/custom_emoji.rb
+++ b/app/models/custom_emoji.rb
@@ -29,9 +29,7 @@ class CustomEmoji < ApplicationRecord
 
   SHORTCODE_RE_FRAGMENT = '[a-zA-Z0-9_]{2,}'
 
-  SCAN_RE = /(?<=[^[:alnum:]:]|\n|^)
-    :(#{SHORTCODE_RE_FRAGMENT}):
-    (?=[^[:alnum:]:]|$)/x
+  SCAN_RE = /:(#{SHORTCODE_RE_FRAGMENT}):/x
   SHORTCODE_ONLY_RE = /\A#{SHORTCODE_RE_FRAGMENT}\z/
 
   IMAGE_MIME_TYPES = %w(image/png image/gif image/webp).freeze
diff --git a/spec/lib/emoji_formatter_spec.rb b/spec/lib/emoji_formatter_spec.rb
index e5accfbb0c..f83bc96d55 100644
--- a/spec/lib/emoji_formatter_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/lib/emoji_formatter_spec.rb
@@ -38,14 +38,6 @@ RSpec.describe EmojiFormatter do
       end
     end
 
-    context 'when given text with concatenated emoji shortcodes' do
-      let(:text) { preformat_text(':coolcat::coolcat:') }
-
-      it 'does not touch the shortcodes' do
-        expect(subject).to match(/:coolcat::coolcat:/)
-      end
-    end
-
     context 'when given text with an emoji shortcode at the end' do
       let(:text) { preformat_text('Beep boop :coolcat:') }