diff --git a/packages/components/hooks/useLinkHandler.tsx b/packages/components/hooks/useLinkHandler.tsx
index 059ed84ebe0..15f493e69f5 100644
--- a/packages/components/hooks/useLinkHandler.tsx
+++ b/packages/components/hooks/useLinkHandler.tsx
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ export const useLinkHandler: UseLinkHandler = (
     // eslint-disable-next-line @typescript-eslint/no-misused-promises
     const handleClick = useHandler(async (event: Event) => {
         const originalTarget = event.target as Element;
-        const target = originalTarget.closest('a');
+        const target = originalTarget.closest('a') || originalTarget.closest('area');
 
         if (!target) {
             return;
diff --git a/packages/shared/lib/sanitize/purify.ts b/packages/shared/lib/sanitize/purify.ts
index 86ea0292d18..c819f22e490 100644
--- a/packages/shared/lib/sanitize/purify.ts
+++ b/packages/shared/lib/sanitize/purify.ts
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ const toMap = (list: string[]) =>
 
 const LIST_PROTON_ATTR = ['data-src', 'src', 'srcset', 'background', 'poster', 'xlink:href', 'href'];
 const MAP_PROTON_ATTR = toMap(LIST_PROTON_ATTR);
-const PROTON_ATTR_TAG_WHITELIST = ['a', 'base'];
+const PROTON_ATTR_TAG_WHITELIST = ['a', 'base', 'area'];
 const MAP_PROTON_ATTR_TAG_WHITELIST = toMap(PROTON_ATTR_TAG_WHITELIST.map((tag) => tag.toUpperCase()));
 
 const shouldPrefix = (tagName: string, attributeName: string) => {