diff --git a/deluge/common.py b/deluge/common.py
index cae8222d9..bbdfd4d64 100644
--- a/deluge/common.py
+++ b/deluge/common.py
@@ -354,7 +354,7 @@ def fdate(seconds):
 
 def is_url(url):
     """
-    A simple regex test to check if the URL is valid
+    A simple test to check if the URL is valid
 
     :param url: the url to test
     :type url: string
@@ -367,8 +367,7 @@ def is_url(url):
     True
 
     """
-    import re
-    return bool(re.search('^(https?|ftp|udp)://', url))
+    return url.partition('://')[0] in ("http", "https", "ftp", "udp")
 
 def is_magnet(uri):
     """
diff --git a/deluge/plugins/blocklist/blocklist/core.py b/deluge/plugins/blocklist/blocklist/core.py
index eb1e3fe7c..8a556ca25 100644
--- a/deluge/plugins/blocklist/blocklist/core.py
+++ b/deluge/plugins/blocklist/blocklist/core.py
@@ -48,6 +48,7 @@ from deluge.log import LOG as log
 from deluge.plugins.pluginbase import CorePluginBase
 import deluge.component as component
 import deluge.configmanager
+from deluge.common import is_url
 from deluge.core.rpcserver import export
 from deluge.httpdownloader import download_file
 from detect import detect_compression, detect_format, create_reader, UnknownFormatError
@@ -136,7 +137,7 @@ class Core(CorePluginBase):
         self.up_to_date = False
         if force:
             self.reader = None
-        self.is_url = self.config["url"].split("://")[0] in ("http", "https")
+        self.is_url = is_url(self.config["url"])
 
         # Start callback chain
         if self.is_url: