diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 3567849c81d..9f3677bea34 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -4456,11 +4456,10 @@ XWIDGETS_OBJ=
 if test "$with_xwidgets" != "no"; then
   if test "$USE_GTK_TOOLKIT" = "GTK3" && test "$window_system" != "none"; then
     WEBKIT_REQUIRED=2.12
-    WEBKIT_BROKEN=2.41.92
-    WEBKIT_MODULES="webkit2gtk-4.1 >= $WEBKIT_REQUIRED webkit2gtk-4.1 < $WEBKIT_BROKEN"
+    WEBKIT_MODULES="webkit2gtk-4.1 >= $WEBKIT_REQUIRED"
     EMACS_CHECK_MODULES([WEBKIT], [$WEBKIT_MODULES])
     if test "$HAVE_WEBKIT" = "no"; then
-      WEBKIT_MODULES="webkit2gtk-4.0 >= $WEBKIT_REQUIRED webkit2gtk-4.0 < $WEBKIT_BROKEN"
+      WEBKIT_MODULES="webkit2gtk-4.0 >= $WEBKIT_REQUIRED"
       EMACS_CHECK_MODULES([WEBKIT], [$WEBKIT_MODULES])
     fi
     HAVE_XWIDGETS=$HAVE_WEBKIT
diff --git a/src/xwidget.c b/src/xwidget.c
index 0efb3466c34..503b554696d 100644
--- a/src/xwidget.c
+++ b/src/xwidget.c
@@ -380,6 +380,15 @@ fails.  */)
 	  g_object_set (G_OBJECT (settings), "enable-developer-extras", TRUE, NULL);
 	  g_object_set (G_OBJECT (settings), "enable-javascript",
 		        (gboolean) (!xwidget_webkit_disable_javascript), NULL);
+#if WEBKIT_CHECK_VERSION (2, 16, 0)
+	  /* the webkit view is created on an *offscreen* window, on
+	     which hardware acceleration is not supported; we need to
+	     tell webkitgtk _not_ to try that, since it will fail & abort()
+	     with recent versions. */
+
+	  webkit_settings_set_hardware_acceleration_policy
+	    (settings, WEBKIT_HARDWARE_ACCELERATION_POLICY_NEVER);
+#endif
 	}
 
       gtk_widget_set_size_request (GTK_WIDGET (xw->widget_osr), xw->width,