diff --git a/ethermess-backend.c b/ethermess-backend.c
index 2ec6d27..09ebddf 100644
--- a/ethermess-backend.c
+++ b/ethermess-backend.c
@@ -415,7 +415,7 @@ void writeallx_u16(int fd, uint16_t value) {
 	writeallx(fd, buf, sizeof(buf));
 }
 
-bool check_utf8(const unsigned char *data, size_t data_length, bool newline_allowed);
+bool check_utf8(const unsigned char *data, size_t data_length, bool newline_tab_allowed);
 
 void read_status(void) {
 	unsigned char status;
@@ -503,7 +503,7 @@ bool check_padding(const unsigned char *data, size_t index, size_t data_length)
 	return true;
 }
 
-bool check_utf8(const unsigned char *data, size_t data_length, bool newline_allowed) {
+bool check_utf8(const unsigned char *data, size_t data_length, bool newline_tab_allowed) {
 	size_t remaining = 0;
 	size_t length = 0;
 	uint32_t codepoint = 0;
@@ -595,7 +595,7 @@ bool check_utf8(const unsigned char *data, size_t data_length, bool newline_allo
 			// Reject control characters
 			if (codepoint <= 0x1f) {
 				// C0 control character
-				if (!newline_allowed || codepoint != 0x0a) {
+				if (!newline_tab_allowed || (codepoint != 0x0a && codepoint != 0x09)) {
 					return false;
 				}
 			} else if (0x80 <= codepoint && codepoint <= 0x9f) {
diff --git a/ethermess.py b/ethermess.py
index 75bb2a1..762d338 100644
--- a/ethermess.py
+++ b/ethermess.py
@@ -130,7 +130,7 @@ def timestamp():
 class NonCharacterError(Exception): pass
 class ControlCharacterError(Exception): pass
 
-def validate_encoding(text, newline_allowed):
+def validate_encoding(text, newline_tab_allowed):
 	# We assume text is valid unicode, so we skip stuff like surrogate pairs
 
 	for char in text:
@@ -146,7 +146,7 @@ def validate_encoding(text, newline_allowed):
 		# Reject control characters
 		if codepoint <= 0x1f:
 			# C0 control characters
-			if not newline_allowed or codepoint != 0x0a:
+			if not newline_tab_allowed or codepoint not in [0x0a, 0x09]:
 				raise ControlCharacterError(char)
 		elif 0x80 <= codepoint <= 0x9f:
 			# C1 control characters
@@ -158,7 +158,7 @@ def validate_encoding(text, newline_allowed):
 class NickLengthError(Exception): pass
 
 def validate_nick(nick):
-	validate_encoding(nick, newline_allowed = False)
+	validate_encoding(nick, newline_tab_allowed = False)
 	# Nick length is stored as one byte
 	if len(nick.encode('utf-8')) > 255:
 		raise NickLengthError
@@ -166,7 +166,7 @@ def validate_nick(nick):
 class MessageLengthError(Exception): pass
 
 def validate_message(message):
-	validate_encoding(message, newline_allowed = True)
+	validate_encoding(message, newline_tab_allowed = True)
 	# Maximum frame payload is 1500 bytes
 	# -2 for EtherMess packet header
 	# -2 for msgid
diff --git a/libexecdir.build b/libexecdir.build
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..945c9b4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/libexecdir.build
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+.
\ No newline at end of file