diff --git a/packages/app-cli/tests/HtmlToMd.ts b/packages/app-cli/tests/HtmlToMd.ts
index db043efbe..c7e6915bb 100644
--- a/packages/app-cli/tests/HtmlToMd.ts
+++ b/packages/app-cli/tests/HtmlToMd.ts
@@ -84,4 +84,10 @@ describe('HtmlToMd', function() {
 		}
 	}));
 
+	it('should allow disabling escape', async () => {
+		const htmlToMd = new HtmlToMd();
+		expect(htmlToMd.parse('https://test.com/1_2_3.pdf', { disableEscapeContent: true })).toBe('https://test.com/1_2_3.pdf');
+		expect(htmlToMd.parse('https://test.com/1_2_3.pdf', { disableEscapeContent: false })).toBe('https://test.com/1\\_2\\_3.pdf');
+	});
+
 });
diff --git a/packages/app-desktop/gui/NoteEditor/utils/clipboardUtils.ts b/packages/app-desktop/gui/NoteEditor/utils/clipboardUtils.ts
index 995353e37..99660398f 100644
--- a/packages/app-desktop/gui/NoteEditor/utils/clipboardUtils.ts
+++ b/packages/app-desktop/gui/NoteEditor/utils/clipboardUtils.ts
@@ -69,8 +69,17 @@ export function htmlToClipboardData(html: string): ClipboardData {
 	// In that case we need to set both HTML and Text context, otherwise it
 	// won't be possible to paste the text in, for example, a text editor.
 	// https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/issues/4788
+	//
+	// Also we don't escape the content produced in HTML to MD conversion
+	// because it's not what would be expected. For example, if the content is
+	// `* something`, strictly speaking it would be correct to escape to `\*
+	// something`, however this is not what the user would expect when copying
+	// text. Likewise for URLs that contain "_". So the resulting Markdown might
+	// not be perfectly valid but would be closer to what a user would expect.
+	// If they want accurate MArkdown they can switch to the MD editor.
+	// https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/issues/5440
 	return {
-		text: htmlToMd().parse(copyableContent),
+		text: htmlToMd().parse(copyableContent, { disableEscapeContent: true }),
 		html: cleanUpCodeBlocks(copyableContent),
 	};
 }
diff --git a/packages/lib/HtmlToMd.ts b/packages/lib/HtmlToMd.ts
index 91f19e23f..e38f0d090 100644
--- a/packages/lib/HtmlToMd.ts
+++ b/packages/lib/HtmlToMd.ts
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ export interface ParseOptions {
 	anchorNames?: string[];
 	preserveImageTagsWithSize?: boolean;
 	baseUrl?: string;
+	disableEscapeContent?: boolean;
 }
 
 export default class HtmlToMd {
@@ -20,6 +21,7 @@ export default class HtmlToMd {
 			emDelimiter: '*',
 			strongDelimiter: '**',
 			br: '',
+			disableEscapeContent: 'disableEscapeContent' in options ? options.disableEscapeContent : false,
 		});
 		turndown.use(turndownPluginGfm);
 		turndown.remove('script');
diff --git a/packages/turndown/src/turndown.js b/packages/turndown/src/turndown.js
index 299fc4379..f916226e9 100644
--- a/packages/turndown/src/turndown.js
+++ b/packages/turndown/src/turndown.js
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ export default function TurndownService (options) {
     linkReferenceStyle: 'full',
     anchorNames: [],
     br: '  ',
+    disableEscapeContent: false,
     blankReplacement: function (content, node) {
       return node.isBlock ? '\n\n' : ''
     },
@@ -181,6 +182,8 @@ TurndownService.prototype = {
  */
 
 function process (parentNode, escapeContent = 'auto') {
+  if (this.options.disableEscapeContent) escapeContent = false;
+
   var self = this
   return reduce.call(parentNode.childNodes, function (output, node) {
     node = new Node(node)