diff --git a/app/models/topic_link.rb b/app/models/topic_link.rb
index 05d35f55ae6..98fe42d1363 100644
--- a/app/models/topic_link.rb
+++ b/app/models/topic_link.rb
@@ -289,6 +289,10 @@ class TopicLink < ActiveRecord::Base
       # Store the same URL that will be used in the cooked version of the post
       url = UrlHelper.cook_url(upload.url, secure: upload.secure?)
     elsif route = Discourse.route_for(parsed)
+      # this is a special case for the silent flag
+      # in internal links
+      return nil if url && (url.split("?")[1] == "silent=true")
+
       internal = true
 
       # We aren't interested in tracking internal links to users
diff --git a/spec/models/topic_link_spec.rb b/spec/models/topic_link_spec.rb
index 7b6ad05386b..fe2e25b3f59 100644
--- a/spec/models/topic_link_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/models/topic_link_spec.rb
@@ -69,6 +69,18 @@ RSpec.describe TopicLink do
   end
 
   describe "internal links" do
+    it "can exclude links with ?silent=true" do
+      url = topic.url
+      raw = "[silent link](#{url}?silent=true)"
+
+      post = Fabricate(:post, user: user, raw: raw)
+
+      TopicLink.extract_from(post)
+
+      expect(topic.topic_links.count).to eq(0)
+      expect(post.topic.topic_links.count).to eq(0)
+    end
+
     it "extracts onebox" do
       other_topic = Fabricate(:topic, user: user)
       Fabricate(:post, topic: other_topic, user: user, raw: "some content for the first post")