diff --git a/src/shell/builtin/rm.zig b/src/shell/builtin/rm.zig
index 7a5938f6fb..234baba71e 100644
--- a/src/shell/builtin/rm.zig
+++ b/src/shell/builtin/rm.zig
@@ -923,7 +923,7 @@ pub const ShellRmTask = struct {
         }
 
         debug("[removeEntryDir] remove after children {s}", .{path});
-        switch (ShellSyscall.unlinkatWithFlags(this.getcwd(), path, std.posix.AT.REMOVEDIR)) {
+        switch (ShellSyscall.unlinkatWithFlags(this.getcwd(), path, std.posix.AT.REMOVEDIR | std.posix.AT.SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW)) {
             .result => {
                 switch (this.verboseDeleted(dir_task, path)) {
                     .err => |e| return .{ .err = e },
@@ -1083,7 +1083,7 @@ pub const ShellRmTask = struct {
             }
         };
         const dirfd = this.cwd;
-        switch (ShellSyscall.unlinkatWithFlags(dirfd, path, 0)) {
+        switch (ShellSyscall.unlinkatWithFlags(dirfd, path, std.posix.AT.SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW)) {
             .result => return this.verboseDeleted(parent_dir_task, path),
             .err => |e| {
                 debug("unlinkatWithFlags({s}) = {s}", .{ path, @tagName(e.getErrno()) });
@@ -1107,7 +1107,7 @@ pub const ShellRmTask = struct {
                                 // If `path` points to a directory, then it is deleted (if empty) or we handle it as a directory
                                 // If it's actually a file, we get an error so we don't need to call `stat` to check that.
                                 if (this.opts.recursive or this.opts.remove_empty_dirs) {
-                                    return switch (ShellSyscall.unlinkatWithFlags(this.getcwd(), path, std.posix.AT.REMOVEDIR)) {
+                                    return switch (ShellSyscall.unlinkatWithFlags(this.getcwd(), path, std.posix.AT.REMOVEDIR | std.posix.AT.SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW)) {
                                         // it was empty, we saved a syscall
                                         .result => return this.verboseDeleted(parent_dir_task, path),
                                         .err => |e2| {
diff --git a/src/sys.zig b/src/sys.zig
index 49e93848a3..6685faaa44 100644
--- a/src/sys.zig
+++ b/src/sys.zig
@@ -2834,9 +2834,11 @@ pub fn unlinkatWithFlags(dirfd: bun.FileDescriptor, to: anytype, flags: c_uint)
             return unlinkatWithFlags(dirfd, bun.strings.toNTPath(w_buf, bun.span(to)), flags);
         }
 
+        // const follow_symlinks = flags
         return bun.windows.DeleteFileBun(to, .{
             .dir = if (dirfd != bun.invalid_fd) dirfd.cast() else null,
             .remove_dir = flags & std.posix.AT.REMOVEDIR != 0,
+            .follow_symlinks = flags & std.posix.AT.SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW == 0,
         });
     }
 
diff --git a/src/windows.zig b/src/windows.zig
index c5ca2b1fa5..365d3a1f3e 100644
--- a/src/windows.zig
+++ b/src/windows.zig
@@ -3483,6 +3483,7 @@ pub extern "kernel32" fn SetConsoleCP(wCodePageID: std.os.windows.UINT) callconv
 pub const DeleteFileOptions = struct {
     dir: ?HANDLE,
     remove_dir: bool = false,
+    follow_symlinks: bool = true,
 };
 
 const FILE_DISPOSITION_DELETE: ULONG = 0x00000001;
@@ -3493,10 +3494,11 @@ const FILE_DISPOSITION_IGNORE_READONLY_ATTRIBUTE: ULONG = 0x00000010;
 
 // Copy-paste of the standard library function except without unreachable.
 pub fn DeleteFileBun(sub_path_w: []const u16, options: DeleteFileOptions) bun.JSC.Maybe(void) {
+    const FOLLOW_SYMLINKS = if (options.follow_symlinks) FILE_OPEN_REPARSE_POINT else 0;
     const create_options_flags: ULONG = if (options.remove_dir)
-        FILE_DIRECTORY_FILE | FILE_OPEN_REPARSE_POINT
+        FILE_DIRECTORY_FILE | FOLLOW_SYMLINKS
     else
-        windows.FILE_NON_DIRECTORY_FILE | FILE_OPEN_REPARSE_POINT; // would we ever want to delete the target instead?
+        windows.FILE_NON_DIRECTORY_FILE | FOLLOW_SYMLINKS; // would we ever want to delete the target instead? Yes, `rm` is expected to delete symlinks, not the actual files
 
     const path_len_bytes = @as(u16, @intCast(sub_path_w.len * 2));
     var nt_name = UNICODE_STRING{
diff --git a/test/js/bun/shell/commands/rm.test.ts b/test/js/bun/shell/commands/rm.test.ts
index 114b4a9ece..0486d9cf3f 100644
--- a/test/js/bun/shell/commands/rm.test.ts
+++ b/test/js/bun/shell/commands/rm.test.ts
@@ -144,6 +144,47 @@ foo/
       expect(await fileExists(`${tempdir}/sub_dir_files`)).toBeTrue();
     }
   });
+
+  test("removes symlinks, not the files referenced by the links", async () => {
+    const tempdir = tempDirWithFiles("rm-symlinks", {
+      "target.txt": "original content",
+      "dir/file.txt": "directory file",
+    });
+
+    // Create symlinks
+    await $`ln -s ${tempdir}/target.txt ${tempdir}/link.txt`.cwd(tempdir);
+    await $`ln -s ${tempdir}/dir ${tempdir}/dirlink`.cwd(tempdir);
+
+    // Verify symlinks exist and point to correct targets
+    expect(await fileExists(`${tempdir}/link.txt`)).toBeTrue();
+    expect(await fileExists(`${tempdir}/dirlink`)).toBeTrue();
+    expect(await Bun.file(`${tempdir}/link.txt`).text()).toBe("original content");
+    expect(await Bun.file(`${tempdir}/dirlink/file.txt`).text()).toBe("directory file");
+
+    // Remove the symlinks
+    {
+      const { stdout, exitCode } = await $`rm -v ${tempdir}/link.txt`;
+      expect(stdout.toString()).toEqual(`${tempdir}/link.txt\n`);
+      expect(exitCode).toBe(0);
+    }
+
+    {
+      const { stdout, exitCode } = await $`rm -v ${tempdir}/dirlink`;
+      expect(stdout.toString()).toEqual(`${tempdir}/dirlink\n`);
+      expect(exitCode).toBe(0);
+    }
+
+    // Verify symlinks are gone but targets remain
+    expect(await fileExists(`${tempdir}/link.txt`)).toBeFalse();
+    expect(await fileExists(`${tempdir}/dirlink`)).toBeFalse();
+    expect(await fileExists(`${tempdir}/target.txt`)).toBeTrue();
+    expect(await fileExists(`${tempdir}/dir`)).toBeTrue();
+    expect(await fileExists(`${tempdir}/dir/file.txt`)).toBeTrue();
+
+    // Verify target files still have their content
+    expect(await Bun.file(`${tempdir}/target.txt`).text()).toBe("original content");
+    expect(await Bun.file(`${tempdir}/dir/file.txt`).text()).toBe("directory file");
+  });
 });
 
 function packagejson() {