diff --git a/config.toml b/config.toml
index 566716f8b..b3046bbb1 100644
--- a/config.toml
+++ b/config.toml
@@ -39,13 +39,13 @@ render_emoji = false
 
 # Whether external links are to be opened in a new tab
 # If this is true, a `rel="noopener"` will always automatically be added for security reasons
-external_links_target_blank = true
+# external_links_target_blank = false
 
 # Whether to set rel="nofollow" for all external links
-external_links_no_follow = false
+external_links_no_follow = true
 
 # Whether to set rel="noreferrer" for all external links
-external_links_no_referrer = false
+external_links_no_referrer = true
 
 # Whether smart punctuation is enabled (changing quotes, dashes, dots in their typographic form)
 # For example, `...` into `…`, `"quote"` into `“curly”` etc
diff --git a/templates/shortcodes/row.html b/templates/shortcodes/row.html
index 1e72ad2a4..5950f30ad 100644
--- a/templates/shortcodes/row.html
+++ b/templates/shortcodes/row.html
@@ -36,7 +36,9 @@ Parameters:
 {% endif %}
 
 <!-- makes external links in row open in new tabs-->
-
+{% set body = body | markdown | replace(from='href="', to='target="_blank" href="') | safe %}
+{% set base_url = get_url(path="")%}
+{% set body = body | markdown | replace(from='target="_blank" href="' ~ base_url , to='href="' ~ base_url) | safe %}
 
 <!-- Splits body to columns -->
 {% set columns = body | safe | markdown | split(pat="|||") %}