diff --git a/apps/api/src/controllers/v1/types.ts b/apps/api/src/controllers/v1/types.ts
index 63ec1dd4..f812f981 100644
--- a/apps/api/src/controllers/v1/types.ts
+++ b/apps/api/src/controllers/v1/types.ts
@@ -30,7 +30,14 @@ export const url = z.preprocess(
       "URL must have a valid top-level domain or be a valid path"
     )
     .refine(
-      (x) => checkUrl(x as string),
+      (x) => {
+        try {
+          checkUrl(x as string)
+          return true;
+        } catch (_) {
+          return false;
+        }
+      },
       "Invalid URL"
     )
     .refine(
diff --git a/apps/api/src/routes/v1.ts b/apps/api/src/routes/v1.ts
index daa9bf43..484ab5dc 100644
--- a/apps/api/src/routes/v1.ts
+++ b/apps/api/src/routes/v1.ts
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ function idempotencyMiddleware(req: Request, res: Response, next: NextFunction)
 }
 
 function blocklistMiddleware(req: Request, res: Response, next: NextFunction) {
-    if (req.body.url && isUrlBlocked(req.body.url)) {
+    if (typeof req.body.url === "string" && isUrlBlocked(req.body.url)) {
         if (!res.headersSent) {
             return res.status(403).json({ success: false, error: "URL is blocked. Firecrawl currently does not support social media scraping due to policy restrictions." });
         }