diff --git a/app/models/embeddable_host.rb b/app/models/embeddable_host.rb
index 6dd77cbb2bd..f638ff235ab 100644
--- a/app/models/embeddable_host.rb
+++ b/app/models/embeddable_host.rb
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ class EmbeddableHost < ActiveRecord::Base
   def self.record_for_url(uri)
     if uri.is_a?(String)
       uri = begin
-        URI(UrlHelper.escape_uri(uri))
+        URI(UrlHelper.normalized_encode(uri))
       rescue URI::Error, Addressable::URI::InvalidURIError
       end
     end
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ class EmbeddableHost < ActiveRecord::Base
     return true if url&.starts_with?(Discourse.base_url) && EmbeddableHost.exists?
 
     uri = begin
-      URI(UrlHelper.escape_uri(url))
+      URI(UrlHelper.normalized_encode(url))
     rescue URI::Error
     end
 
diff --git a/app/models/topic_embed.rb b/app/models/topic_embed.rb
index 1d5676e5d9e..6b0e3662f84 100644
--- a/app/models/topic_embed.rb
+++ b/app/models/topic_embed.rb
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ class TopicEmbed < ActiveRecord::Base
   def self.find_remote(url)
     require 'ruby-readability'
 
-    url = UrlHelper.escape_uri(url)
+    url = UrlHelper.normalized_encode(url)
     original_uri = URI.parse(url)
     fd = FinalDestination.new(
       url,
@@ -164,7 +164,7 @@ class TopicEmbed < ActiveRecord::Base
       unless (src.nil? || src.empty?)
         begin
           # convert URL to absolute form
-          node[url_param] = URI.join(url, UrlHelper.escape_uri(src)).to_s
+          node[url_param] = URI.join(url, UrlHelper.normalized_encode(src)).to_s
         rescue URI::Error, Addressable::URI::InvalidURIError
           # If there is a mistyped URL, just do nothing
         end
@@ -200,7 +200,7 @@ class TopicEmbed < ActiveRecord::Base
   def self.absolutize_urls(url, contents)
     url = normalize_url(url)
     begin
-      uri = URI(UrlHelper.escape_uri(url))
+      uri = URI(UrlHelper.normalized_encode(url))
     rescue URI::Error
       return contents
     end
diff --git a/lib/final_destination.rb b/lib/final_destination.rb
index 7070bcfdeec..77b4b06821f 100644
--- a/lib/final_destination.rb
+++ b/lib/final_destination.rb
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ class FinalDestination
 
   def initialize(url, opts = nil)
     @url = url
-    @uri = uri(escape_url) if @url
+    @uri = uri(normalized_url) if @url
 
     @opts = opts || {}
     @force_get_hosts = @opts[:force_get_hosts] || []
@@ -417,8 +417,8 @@ class FinalDestination
     false
   end
 
-  def escape_url
-    UrlHelper.escape_uri(@url)
+  def normalized_url
+    UrlHelper.normalized_encode(@url)
   end
 
   def private_ranges
diff --git a/lib/oneboxer.rb b/lib/oneboxer.rb
index c9037cde3b5..def706b0ef2 100644
--- a/lib/oneboxer.rb
+++ b/lib/oneboxer.rb
@@ -237,7 +237,7 @@ module Oneboxer
   end
 
   def self.onebox_raw(url, opts = {})
-    url = UrlHelper.escape_uri(url).to_s
+    url = UrlHelper.normalized_encode(url).to_s
     local_onebox(url, opts) || external_onebox(url)
   rescue => e
     # no point warning here, just cause we have an issue oneboxing a url
diff --git a/lib/pretty_text.rb b/lib/pretty_text.rb
index d80df5bbf8d..8ecf86c2d6f 100644
--- a/lib/pretty_text.rb
+++ b/lib/pretty_text.rb
@@ -488,7 +488,7 @@ module PrettyText
   def self.convert_vimeo_iframes(doc)
     doc.css("iframe[src*='player.vimeo.com']").each do |iframe|
       if iframe["data-original-href"].present?
-        vimeo_url = UrlHelper.escape_uri(iframe["data-original-href"])
+        vimeo_url = UrlHelper.normalized_encode(iframe["data-original-href"])
       else
         vimeo_id = iframe['src'].split('/').last
         vimeo_url = "https://vimeo.com/#{vimeo_id}"
diff --git a/lib/url_helper.rb b/lib/url_helper.rb
index 70fda870911..8065d267969 100644
--- a/lib/url_helper.rb
+++ b/lib/url_helper.rb
@@ -60,10 +60,16 @@ class UrlHelper
     self.absolute(Upload.secure_media_url_from_upload_url(url), nil)
   end
 
-  # This is a poorly named method. In reality, it **normalizes** the given URL,
-  # and does not escape it. Therefore it's idempotent, and can be used on user
-  # input which includes a mix of escaped and unescaped characters
   def self.escape_uri(uri)
+    Discourse.deprecate(
+      "UrlHelper.escape_uri is deprecated. For normalization of user input use `.normalized_encode`. For true encoding, use `.encode`",
+      output_in_test: true,
+      drop_from: '3.0'
+    )
+    normalized_encode(uri)
+  end
+
+  def self.normalized_encode(uri)
     validated = nil
     url = uri.to_s
 
diff --git a/plugins/poll/plugin.rb b/plugins/poll/plugin.rb
index 94a1c5570e7..280bb5f3eca 100644
--- a/plugins/poll/plugin.rb
+++ b/plugins/poll/plugin.rb
@@ -147,7 +147,7 @@ after_initialize do
     post = options[:post]
 
     replacement = post&.url.present? ?
-      "<a href='#{UrlHelper.escape_uri(post.url)}'>#{I18n.t("poll.poll")}</a>" :
+      "<a href='#{UrlHelper.normalized_encode(post.url)}'>#{I18n.t("poll.poll")}</a>" :
       I18n.t("poll.poll")
 
     doc.css("div.poll").each do |poll|
diff --git a/spec/lib/final_destination_spec.rb b/spec/lib/final_destination_spec.rb
index b3d102be73c..b07b37a288b 100644
--- a/spec/lib/final_destination_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/lib/final_destination_spec.rb
@@ -606,21 +606,21 @@ RSpec.describe FinalDestination do
     end
   end
 
-  describe "#escape_url" do
-    it "correctly escapes url" do
+  describe "#normalized_url" do
+    it "correctly normalizes url" do
       fragment_url = "https://eviltrout.com/2016/02/25/fixing-android-performance.html#discourse-comments"
 
-      expect(fd(fragment_url).escape_url.to_s).to eq(fragment_url)
+      expect(fd(fragment_url).normalized_url.to_s).to eq(fragment_url)
 
-      expect(fd("https://eviltrout.com?s=180&#038;d=mm&#038;r=g").escape_url.to_s)
+      expect(fd("https://eviltrout.com?s=180&#038;d=mm&#038;r=g").normalized_url.to_s)
         .to eq("https://eviltrout.com?s=180&#038;d=mm&%23038;r=g")
 
-      expect(fd("http://example.com/?a=\11\15").escape_url.to_s).to eq("http://example.com/?a=%09%0D")
+      expect(fd("http://example.com/?a=\11\15").normalized_url.to_s).to eq("http://example.com/?a=%09%0D")
 
-      expect(fd("https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%BE").escape_url.to_s)
+      expect(fd("https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%BE").normalized_url.to_s)
         .to eq('https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%BE')
 
-      expect(fd('https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Свобо').escape_url.to_s)
+      expect(fd('https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Свобо').normalized_url.to_s)
         .to eq('https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%BE')
     end
   end
diff --git a/spec/lib/url_helper_spec.rb b/spec/lib/url_helper_spec.rb
index 4a3e64b5c9c..38331dfe7d2 100644
--- a/spec/lib/url_helper_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/lib/url_helper_spec.rb
@@ -85,40 +85,40 @@ RSpec.describe UrlHelper do
     end
   end
 
-  describe "#escape_uri" do
+  describe "#normalized_encode" do
     it "does not double escape %3A (:)" do
       url = "http://discourse.org/%3A/test"
-      expect(UrlHelper.escape_uri(url)).to eq(url)
+      expect(UrlHelper.normalized_encode(url)).to eq(url)
     end
 
     it "does not double escape %2F (/)" do
       url = "http://discourse.org/%2F/test"
-      expect(UrlHelper.escape_uri(url)).to eq(url)
+      expect(UrlHelper.normalized_encode(url)).to eq(url)
     end
 
     it "doesn't escape simple URL" do
-      url = UrlHelper.escape_uri('http://example.com/foo/bar')
+      url = UrlHelper.normalized_encode('http://example.com/foo/bar')
       expect(url).to eq('http://example.com/foo/bar')
     end
 
     it "escapes unsafe chars" do
-      url = UrlHelper.escape_uri("http://example.com/?a=\11\15")
+      url = UrlHelper.normalized_encode("http://example.com/?a=\11\15")
       expect(url).to eq('http://example.com/?a=%09%0D')
     end
 
     it "escapes non-ascii chars" do
-      url = UrlHelper.escape_uri('http://example.com/ماهی')
+      url = UrlHelper.normalized_encode('http://example.com/ماهی')
       expect(url).to eq('http://example.com/%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%87%DB%8C')
     end
 
     it "doesn't escape already escaped chars (space)" do
-      url = UrlHelper.escape_uri('http://example.com/foo%20bar/foo bar/')
+      url = UrlHelper.normalized_encode('http://example.com/foo%20bar/foo bar/')
       expect(url).to eq('http://example.com/foo%20bar/foo%20bar/')
     end
 
     it "doesn't escape already escaped chars (hash)" do
       url = 'https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=en.uk%23holiday@group.v.calendar.google.com&ctz=Europe%2FLondon'
-      escaped = UrlHelper.escape_uri(url)
+      escaped = UrlHelper.normalized_encode(url)
       expect(escaped).to eq(url)
     end
 
@@ -126,27 +126,27 @@ RSpec.describe UrlHelper do
       skip "see: https://github.com/sporkmonger/addressable/issues/472"
       url = "https://example.com/ article/id%3A1.2%2F1/bar"
       expected = "https://example.com/%20article/id%3A1.2%2F1/bar"
-      escaped = UrlHelper.escape_uri(url)
+      escaped = UrlHelper.normalized_encode(url)
       expect(escaped).to eq(expected)
     end
 
     it "handles emoji domain names" do
       url = "https://💻.example/💻?computer=💻"
       expected = "https://xn--3s8h.example/%F0%9F%92%BB?computer=%F0%9F%92%BB"
-      escaped = UrlHelper.escape_uri(url)
+      escaped = UrlHelper.normalized_encode(url)
       expect(escaped).to eq(expected)
     end
 
     it "handles special-character domain names" do
       url = "https://éxample.com/test"
       expected = "https://xn--xample-9ua.com/test"
-      escaped = UrlHelper.escape_uri(url)
+      escaped = UrlHelper.normalized_encode(url)
       expect(escaped).to eq(expected)
     end
 
     it "performs basic normalization" do
       url = "http://EXAMPLE.com/a"
-      escaped = UrlHelper.escape_uri(url)
+      escaped = UrlHelper.normalized_encode(url)
       expect(escaped).to eq("http://example.com/a")
     end
 
@@ -155,7 +155,7 @@ RSpec.describe UrlHelper do
       # sensitive information stripped
       presigned_url = "https://test.com/original/3X/b/5/575bcc2886bf7a39684b57ca90be85f7d399bbc7.png?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AK8888999977%2F20200130%2Fus-west-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20200130T064355Z&X-Amz-Expires=15&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Security-Token=blahblah%2Bblahblah%2Fblah%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2FwEQAR&X-Amz-Signature=test"
       encoded_presigned_url = "https://test.com/original/3X/b/5/575bcc2886bf7a39684b57ca90be85f7d399bbc7.png?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AK8888999977/20200130/us-west-1/s3/aws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20200130T064355Z&X-Amz-Expires=15&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Security-Token=blahblah+blahblah/blah//////////wEQA==&X-Amz-Signature=test"
-      expect(UrlHelper.escape_uri(presigned_url)).not_to eq(encoded_presigned_url)
+      expect(UrlHelper.normalized_encode(presigned_url)).not_to eq(encoded_presigned_url)
     end
   end