diff --git a/src/Content/Text/HTML.php b/src/Content/Text/HTML.php
index a25883eb16..557e737096 100644
--- a/src/Content/Text/HTML.php
+++ b/src/Content/Text/HTML.php
@@ -336,8 +336,6 @@ class HTML
 
 		$message = html_entity_decode($message, ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8');
 
-		$message = str_replace(["<"], ["&lt;"], $message);
-
 		// remove quotes if they don't make sense
 		$message = preg_replace('=\[/quote\][\s]*\[quote\]=i', "\n", $message);
 
diff --git a/src/Protocol/DFRN.php b/src/Protocol/DFRN.php
index 798f607927..2202331b12 100644
--- a/src/Protocol/DFRN.php
+++ b/src/Protocol/DFRN.php
@@ -2365,7 +2365,7 @@ class DFRN
 		$item["body"] = XML::getFirstNodeValue($xpath, "dfrn:env/text()", $entry);
 		$item["body"] = str_replace([' ',"\t","\r","\n"], ['','','',''], $item["body"]);
 		// make sure nobody is trying to sneak some html tags by us
-		$item["body"] = Strings::escapeTags(Strings::base64UrlDecode($item["body"]));
+		$item["body"] = Strings::base64UrlDecode($item["body"]);
 
 		$item["body"] = BBCode::limitBodySize($item["body"]);
 
diff --git a/tests/src/Content/Text/HTMLTest.php b/tests/src/Content/Text/HTMLTest.php
index 1d550049a9..fe54399014 100644
--- a/tests/src/Content/Text/HTMLTest.php
+++ b/tests/src/Content/Text/HTMLTest.php
@@ -58,6 +58,10 @@ class HTMLTest extends MockedTest
 				'expectedBBCode' => '[audio]http://www.cendrones.fr/colloque2017/jonathanbocquet.mp3[/audio]',
 				'html' => '<audio src="http://www.cendrones.fr/colloque2017/jonathanbocquet.mp3" controls="controls"><a href="http://www.cendrones.fr/colloque2017/jonathanbocquet.mp3">http://www.cendrones.fr/colloque2017/jonathanbocquet.mp3</a></audio>',
 			],
+			'bug-8075-html-tags' => [
+				'expectedBBCode' => "<big rant here> I don't understand tests",
+				'html' => "&lt;big rant here&gt; I don't understand tests",
+			],
 		];
 	}