diff --git a/app/soapbox/features/compose/editor/index.tsx b/app/soapbox/features/compose/editor/index.tsx
index 820f9f101..4949d977e 100644
--- a/app/soapbox/features/compose/editor/index.tsx
+++ b/app/soapbox/features/compose/editor/index.tsx
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ Copyright (c) Meta Platforms, Inc. and affiliates.
 This source code is licensed under the MIT license found in the
 LICENSE file in the /app/soapbox/features/compose/editor directory.
 */
-import { $convertFromMarkdownString, $convertToMarkdownString, TRANSFORMERS } from '@lexical/markdown';
+import { $convertFromMarkdownString, $convertToMarkdownString } from '@lexical/markdown';
 import { AutoFocusPlugin } from '@lexical/react/LexicalAutoFocusPlugin';
 import { LexicalComposer, InitialConfigType } from '@lexical/react/LexicalComposer';
 import { useLexicalComposerContext } from '@lexical/react/LexicalComposerContext';
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ import DraggableBlockPlugin from './plugins/draggable-block-plugin';
 import FloatingLinkEditorPlugin from './plugins/floating-link-editor-plugin';
 import FloatingTextFormatToolbarPlugin from './plugins/floating-text-format-toolbar-plugin';
 import { MentionPlugin } from './plugins/mention-plugin';
+import { TO_WYSIWYG_TRANSFORMERS } from './transformers';
 
 const StatePlugin = ({ composeId }: { composeId: string }) => {
   const dispatch = useAppDispatch();
@@ -108,7 +109,7 @@ const ComposeEditor = React.forwardRef<string, IComposeEditor>(({
 
         return function() {
           if (compose.content_type === 'text/markdown') {
-            $convertFromMarkdownString(compose.text, TRANSFORMERS);
+            $convertFromMarkdownString(compose.text, TO_WYSIWYG_TRANSFORMERS);
           } else {
             const paragraph = $createParagraphNode();
             const textNode = $createTextNode(compose.text);
@@ -175,7 +176,7 @@ const ComposeEditor = React.forwardRef<string, IComposeEditor>(({
         {autoFocus && <AutoFocusPlugin />}
         <OnChangePlugin onChange={(_, editor) => {
           editor.update(() => {
-            if (editorStateRef) (editorStateRef as any).current = $convertToMarkdownString(TRANSFORMERS);
+            if (editorStateRef) (editorStateRef as any).current = $convertToMarkdownString(TO_WYSIWYG_TRANSFORMERS);
           });
         }}
         />
diff --git a/app/soapbox/features/compose/editor/transformers/index.ts b/app/soapbox/features/compose/editor/transformers/index.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..bc8dbee16
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app/soapbox/features/compose/editor/transformers/index.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,92 @@
+// Adapted from: https://github.com/facebook/lexical/issues/2715#issuecomment-1209090485
+
+import {
+  BOLD_ITALIC_UNDERSCORE,
+  BOLD_ITALIC_STAR,
+  BOLD_STAR,
+  BOLD_UNDERSCORE,
+  STRIKETHROUGH,
+  INLINE_CODE,
+  HEADING,
+  QUOTE,
+  ORDERED_LIST,
+  UNORDERED_LIST,
+  LINK,
+  TextMatchTransformer,
+} from '@lexical/markdown';
+
+const replaceEscapedChars = (text: string): string => {
+  // convert "\*" to "*", "\_" to "_", "\~" to "~", ...
+  return text
+    .replaceAll('\\*', '*')
+    .replaceAll('\\_', '_')
+    .replaceAll('\\-', '-')
+    .replaceAll('\\#', '#')
+    .replaceAll('\\>', '>')
+    .replaceAll('\\+', '+')
+    .replaceAll('\\~', '~');
+};
+
+const replaceUnescapedChars = (text: string, regexes: RegExp[]): string => {
+  // convert "*" to "", "_" to "", "~" to "" (all chars, which are not escaped - means with "\" in front)
+  for (const regex of regexes) {
+    text = text.replaceAll(regex, '');
+  }
+  return text;
+};
+
+const UNESCAPE_ITALIC_UNDERSCORE_IMPORT_REGEX =
+  /([\_])(?<!(?:\1|\w).)(?![_*\s])(.*?[^_*\s])(?=\1)([\_])(?!\w|\3)/;
+const UNESCAPE_ITALIC_UNDERSCORE_REGEX =
+  /([\_])(?<!(?:\1|\w).)(?![_*\s])(.*?[^_*\s])(?=\1)([\_])(?!\w|\3)/;
+
+export const UNESCAPE_ITALIC_UNDERSCORE: TextMatchTransformer = {
+  dependencies: [],
+  export: () => null,
+  importRegExp: UNESCAPE_ITALIC_UNDERSCORE_IMPORT_REGEX,
+  regExp: UNESCAPE_ITALIC_UNDERSCORE_REGEX,
+  replace: (textNode, _) => {
+    const notEscapedUnderscoreRegex = /(?<![\\]{1})[\_]{1}/g;
+    const textContent = replaceUnescapedChars(textNode.getTextContent(), [
+      notEscapedUnderscoreRegex,
+    ]);
+    textNode.setTextContent(replaceEscapedChars(textContent));
+    textNode.setFormat('italic');
+  },
+  trigger: '_',
+  type: 'text-match',
+};
+
+const UNESCAPE_BACKSLASH_IMPORT_REGEX = /(\\(?:\\\\)?).*?\1*[\~\*\_\{\}\[\]\(\)\#\+\-\.\!]/;
+const UNESCAPE_BACKSLASH_REGEX = /(\\(?:\\\\)?).*?\1*[\~\*\_\{\}\[\]\(\)\#\+\-\.\!]$/;
+
+export const UNESCAPE_BACKSLASH: TextMatchTransformer = {
+  dependencies: [],
+  export: () => null,
+  importRegExp: UNESCAPE_BACKSLASH_IMPORT_REGEX,
+  regExp: UNESCAPE_BACKSLASH_REGEX,
+  replace: (textNode, _) => {
+    if (textNode) {
+      textNode.setTextContent(replaceEscapedChars(textNode.getTextContent()));
+    }
+  },
+  trigger: '\\',
+  type: 'text-match',
+};
+
+export const TO_WYSIWYG_TRANSFORMERS = [
+  UNESCAPE_BACKSLASH,
+  BOLD_ITALIC_UNDERSCORE,
+  BOLD_ITALIC_STAR,
+  BOLD_STAR,
+  BOLD_UNDERSCORE,
+  STRIKETHROUGH,
+  UNESCAPE_ITALIC_UNDERSCORE,
+  // UNESCAPE_ITALIC_STAR,
+  INLINE_CODE,
+  HEADING,
+  QUOTE,
+  ORDERED_LIST,
+  UNORDERED_LIST,
+  LINK,
+];
diff --git a/app/soapbox/features/emoji/mapping.ts b/app/soapbox/features/emoji/mapping.ts
index 5259c2dc2..601e30920 100644
--- a/app/soapbox/features/emoji/mapping.ts
+++ b/app/soapbox/features/emoji/mapping.ts
@@ -1,11 +1,6 @@
 import data, { EmojiData } from './data';
 
 const stripLeadingZeros = /^0+/;
-
-function replaceAll(str: string, find: string, replace: string) {
-  return str.replace(new RegExp(find, 'g'), replace);
-}
-
 interface UnicodeMap {
   [s: string]: {
     unified: string
@@ -80,7 +75,7 @@ const stripcodes = (unified: string, native: string) => {
   if (unified.includes('200d') && !(unified in blacklist)) {
     return stripped;
   } else {
-    return replaceAll(stripped, '-fe0f', '');
+    return stripped.replaceAll('-fe0f', '');
   }
 };