diff --git a/lib/pleroma/release_tasks.ex b/lib/pleroma/release_tasks.ex
index af2d35c8f..49400940f 100644
--- a/lib/pleroma/release_tasks.ex
+++ b/lib/pleroma/release_tasks.ex
@@ -5,7 +5,10 @@
 defmodule Pleroma.ReleaseTasks do
   @repo Pleroma.Repo
 
-  def run(args) do
+  # TODO: Kept for some backwards compatibility with buggy pleroma_ctl,
+  # if a mismatch between pleroma_ctl and Pleroma accidentaly happens.
+  # Remove in the future.
+  def run(args) when is_binary(args) do
     [task | args] = String.split(args)
 
     case task do
@@ -16,6 +19,20 @@ defmodule Pleroma.ReleaseTasks do
     end
   end
 
+  # HACK: Script arguments need to be received as a list, otherwise (quoted) arguments with
+  # whitespace will be broken. Previously the broken string form above was used,
+  # escaping in the shell does not help.
+  def run(args) when is_list(args) do
+    [task | args] = args
+
+    case task do
+      "migrate" -> migrate(args)
+      "create" -> create()
+      "rollback" -> rollback(args)
+      task -> mix_task(task, args)
+    end
+  end
+
   def find_module(task) do
     module_name =
       task
diff --git a/rel/files/bin/pleroma_ctl b/rel/files/bin/pleroma_ctl
index 6f0dba3a8..56dc13a06 100755
--- a/rel/files/bin/pleroma_ctl
+++ b/rel/files/bin/pleroma_ctl
@@ -137,7 +137,11 @@ else
 	SCRIPT=$(realpath "$0")
 	SCRIPTPATH=$(dirname "$SCRIPT")
 
-	FULL_ARGS="$*"
+	# HACK: Script arguments need to be sent as an array to Mix tasks, otherwise they will break (quoted) arguments with whitespace.
+	# Previously it was sent as string, which would get split on whitespace on the task side.
+	# Escaping does not help including non-POSIX printf %q
+	PREPARED_ARGS=""
+	for arg in "$@"; do PREPARED_ARGS="$PREPARED_ARGS \"$arg\","; done
 
 	ACTION="$1"
 	if [ $# -gt 0 ]; then
@@ -154,8 +158,8 @@ else
 	if [ "$ACTION" = "update" ]; then
 		update "$@"
 	elif [ "$ACTION" = "migrate" ] || [ "$ACTION" = "rollback" ] || [ "$ACTION" = "create" ] || [ "$ACTION $SUBACTION" = "instance gen" ] || [ "$PLEROMA_CTL_RPC_DISABLED" = true ]; then
-		"$SCRIPTPATH"/pleroma eval 'Pleroma.ReleaseTasks.run("'"$FULL_ARGS"'")'
+		"$SCRIPTPATH"/pleroma eval 'Pleroma.ReleaseTasks.run(['"${PREPARED_ARGS%%,}"'])'
 	else
-		"$SCRIPTPATH"/pleroma rpc 'Pleroma.ReleaseTasks.run("'"$FULL_ARGS"'")'
+		"$SCRIPTPATH"/pleroma rpc 'Pleroma.ReleaseTasks.run(['"${PREPARED_ARGS%%,}"'])'
 	fi
 fi