diff --git a/mapinfo_stoat.js b/mapinfo_stoat.js
index ac59605..a67270f 100644
--- a/mapinfo_stoat.js
+++ b/mapinfo_stoat.js
@@ -307,12 +307,12 @@ async function checkNewMessages(channel_selected, admin_chat_bool) {
 function sanitizeForRcon(str, maxLength = 200) {
     if (typeof str !== 'string') return '';
     return str
-        .replace(/[^\w\s.,!?'\-]/g, '') // keep only safe chars, strip everything else
+        .replace(/[\r\n]+/g, ' ')              // collapse newlines to a space first
+        .replace(/[^\w .,!?'\-]/g, '')          // note: \s replaced with a literal space
         .trim()
         .slice(0, maxLength);
 }
 
-
 var lastProcessedMessageId_rcon_ze = null;
 async function checkNewMessages_rcon_ze() {
     try {