diff --git a/include/text.php b/include/text.php
index 2d265e6eee..5c6ab588f1 100644
--- a/include/text.php
+++ b/include/text.php
@@ -220,7 +220,7 @@ function xmlify($str) {
 	$buffer = mb_ereg_replace("<", "&lt;", $buffer);
 	$buffer = mb_ereg_replace(">", "&gt;", $buffer);
 	*/
-	$buffer = htmlspecialchars($str, ENT_QUOTES);
+	$buffer = htmlspecialchars($str, ENT_QUOTES, "UTF-8");
 	$buffer = trim($buffer);
 
 	return($buffer);
diff --git a/mod/ping.php b/mod/ping.php
index 8119840bbd..97a3070d84 100644
--- a/mod/ping.php
+++ b/mod/ping.php
@@ -167,6 +167,9 @@ function ping_init(&$a) {
 			require_once("mod/proxy.php");
 			$photo = proxy_url($photo);
 
+			$message = html_entity_decode($message, ENT_COMPAT | ENT_HTML401, "UTF-8");
+			$name = html_entity_decode($name, ENT_COMPAT | ENT_HTML401, "UTF-8");
+
 			// Are the nofications calles from the regular process or via the friendica app?
 			$regularnotifications = (intval($_GET['uid']) AND intval($_GET['_']));
 
@@ -175,10 +178,9 @@ function ping_init(&$a) {
 			if ($a->is_friendica_app() OR !$regularnotifications)
 				$message = str_replace("{0}", $name, $message);
 
-
 			$data = array('href' => &$href, 'name' => &$name, 'url'=>&$url, 'photo'=>&$photo, 'date'=>&$date, 'seen'=>&$seen, 'messsage'=>&$message);
 			call_hooks('ping_xmlize', $data);
-			$notsxml = '<note href="%s" name="%s" url="%s" photo="%s" date="%s" seen="%s" >%s</note>';
+			$notsxml = '<note href="%s" name="%s" url="%s" photo="%s" date="%s" seen="%s" >%s</note>'."\n";
 			return sprintf ( $notsxml,
 				xmlify($href), xmlify($name), xmlify($url), xmlify($photo), xmlify($date), xmlify($seen), xmlify($message)
 			);