Confluence converting external links to atlassian links (stuck in a loop) - also an a11y issue

[Lisa Nichols]

I created a lengthy page with a long list of external links. Instead of raw urls, I embedded the links in the webpage names to be accessible (used contextual links) but the links were all removed and replaced with URLs like this one:

https://highmarkhealth.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/AD/pages/3025633342/Digital+Strategy-+{website name}+pages+and+other+webpages+we+support#{webpage name}

(I'm replacing the website name and webpage name with generic language for this support ticket)

What happened and how can this be fixed?