diff --git a/src/bitmessageqt/messageview.py b/src/bitmessageqt/messageview.py
index 40830a70..882dbb81 100644
--- a/src/bitmessageqt/messageview.py
+++ b/src/bitmessageqt/messageview.py
@@ -128,6 +128,7 @@ class MessageView(QtGui.QTextBrowser):
         self.html.reset()
         self.html.reset_safe()
         self.html.allow_picture = True
-        self.html.feed(data)
+        # quick hack to limit excessively compressed messages, limits viewing to first MB of data
+        self.html.feed(data[0:1048576])
         self.html.close()
         self.showPlain()