diff --git a/src/node/utils/ExportMediaWiki.js b/src/node/utils/ExportMediaWiki.js
index 0afca4b1c..eeec791a5 100644
--- a/src/node/utils/ExportMediaWiki.js
+++ b/src/node/utils/ExportMediaWiki.js
@@ -210,7 +210,7 @@ function getMediaWikiFromAtext(pad, atext)
         }
         var s = taker.take(chars);
 
-        assem.append(_escapeMediaWiki(s));
+        assem.append(s);
       } // end iteration over spans in line
       for (var i = propVals.length - 1; i >= 0; i--)
       {
@@ -319,12 +319,6 @@ exports.getPadMediaWikiDocument = function (padId, revNum, callback)
   });
 }
 
-function _escapeMediaWiki(s)
-{
-  s = s.replace(/(\/\/|\*\*|__)/g, '%%$1%%');
-  return s;
-}
-
 // copied from ACE
 var _REGEX_WORDCHAR = /[\u0030-\u0039\u0041-\u005A\u0061-\u007A\u00C0-\u00D6\u00D8-\u00F6\u00F8-\u00FF\u0100-\u1FFF\u3040-\u9FFF\uF900-\uFDFF\uFE70-\uFEFE\uFF10-\uFF19\uFF21-\uFF3A\uFF41-\uFF5A\uFF66-\uFFDC]/;
 var _REGEX_SPACE = /\s/;