Benjamin Mayo, writing for 9to5Mac:

Readers are reporting a strange bug with iOS 9.3 (and older versions apparently, exact characteristics of affected devices is unclear), primarily affecting the latest Apple devices, iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. The issue has also been reported on older phones and some iPad models as well. The cause is unknown, but many users are finding themselves unable to open links in Safari, Messages, Mail, Notes and other apps. Instead of visiting the target website, the app crashes, freezes or hangs.

To see this more directly, take a read through some of these bug reports on Apple’s support forum.

This is one of those maddening, difficult to reproduce bugs that makes it hard to predict whether your device is susceptible to this problem. I just upgraded my iPhone 6s Plus, no problem. But could be I don’t have the right model, or the right combination of apps that trigger the bug.

Other users are reporting that tapping on links simply does nothing, whereas a tap-and-hold causes a crash. A permanent fix for the issue is not known and Apple has yet to comment on what may be going on. Some people have reported that disabling JavaScript partially solves the issue for opening links in Safari, but remains for other apps.

I wonder if the Chrome browser suffers from the same problem on an affected machine. [From Ben via Twitter: Chrome worked for me. Doesn’t seem consistent.]

No doubt Apple has a team working on this around the clock. Hopefully, a patch will come out quickly.