diff --git a/wp-includes/formatting.php b/wp-includes/formatting.php
index 83a09ae8fa..4d834550f5 100644
--- a/wp-includes/formatting.php
+++ b/wp-includes/formatting.php
@@ -688,24 +688,7 @@ function _wp_specialchars( $string, $quote_style = ENT_NOQUOTES, $charset = fals
 		$quote_style = ENT_NOQUOTES;
 	}
 
-	// Handle double encoding ourselves
-	if ( $double_encode ) {
-		$string = @htmlspecialchars( $string, $quote_style, $charset );
-	} else {
-		// Decode & into &
-		$string = wp_specialchars_decode( $string, $_quote_style );
-
-		// Guarantee every &entity; is valid or re-encode the &
-		$string = wp_kses_normalize_entities( $string );
-
-		// Now re-encode everything except &entity;
-		$string = preg_split( '/(&#?x?[0-9a-z]+;)/i', $string, -1, PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE );
-
-		for ( $i = 0, $c = count( $string ); $i < $c; $i += 2 ) {
-			$string[$i] = @htmlspecialchars( $string[$i], $quote_style, $charset );
-		}
-		$string = implode( '', $string );
-	}
+	$string = @htmlspecialchars( $string, $quote_style, $charset, $double_encode );
 
 	// Backwards compatibility
 	if ( 'single' === $_quote_style )
diff --git a/wp-includes/version.php b/wp-includes/version.php
index 4da98b46dc..9f20cb58cc 100644
--- a/wp-includes/version.php
+++ b/wp-includes/version.php
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
  *
  * @global string $wp_version
  */
-$wp_version = '4.3-alpha-32849';
+$wp_version = '4.3-alpha-32850';
 
 /**
  * Holds the WordPress DB revision, increments when changes are made to the WordPress DB schema.