diff --git a/lib/channel.js b/lib/channel.js
index 4480a4e7..a4035913 100644
--- a/lib/channel.js
+++ b/lib/channel.js
@@ -2558,8 +2558,7 @@ Channel.prototype.validateEmote = function (f) {
     f.image = f.image.substring(0, 1000);
     f.image = XSS.sanitizeText(f.image);
 
-    var s = f.name.replace(/\\\.\?\+\*\$\^\(\)\[\]\{\}/g, "\\$1");
-    s = s.replace(/&/g, "&amp;").replace(/</g, "&lt;").replace(/>/g, "&gt;");
+    var s = XSS.sanitizeText(f.name).replace(/([\\\.\?\+\*\$\^\(\)\[\]\{\}])/g, "\\$1");
     s = "(^|\\s)" + s + "(?!\\S)";
     f.source = s;