diff --git a/lib/platform/github/index.js b/lib/platform/github/index.js
index 4cd650173f4d8efe7ffc50835eddbf0798652f9c..f392f5cfba0a6de91f0d378600a95ee6cd32b5f7 100644
--- a/lib/platform/github/index.js
+++ b/lib/platform/github/index.js
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 const is = require('@sindresorhus/is');
 const addrs = require('email-addresses');
 const delay = require('delay');
-const showdown = require('showdown');
 const URL = require('url');
 
 const get = require('./gh-got-wrapper');
@@ -9,9 +8,6 @@ const hostRules = require('../../util/host-rules');
 const Storage = require('./storage');
 const GitStorage = require('../git/storage');
 
-const converter = new showdown.Converter();
-converter.setFlavor('github');
-
 let config = {};
 
 module.exports = {
@@ -1298,13 +1294,9 @@ function getPrBody(input) {
     return input.substring(0, 60000);
   }
   return (
-    converter
-      .makeHtml(input)
+    input
       // to be safe, replace all github.com links with renovatebot redirector
-      .replace(
-        /href="https?:\/\/github.com\//g,
-        'href="https://renovatebot.com/gh/'
-      )
+      .replace(/]\(https:\/\/github\.com\//g, '](https://renovatebot.com/gh/')
       .substring(0, 60000)
   );
 }
diff --git a/lib/platform/gitlab/index.js b/lib/platform/gitlab/index.js
index 63efaf6554db96480fbf7cbbf160358bb6b6a4c6..e7d8c8ece663b7e549a5f200d8bf5999e2b5c130 100644
--- a/lib/platform/gitlab/index.js
+++ b/lib/platform/gitlab/index.js
@@ -1,13 +1,9 @@
 const is = require('@sindresorhus/is');
 const addrs = require('email-addresses');
-const showdown = require('showdown');
 
 const get = require('./gl-got-wrapper');
 const hostRules = require('../../util/host-rules');
 
-const converter = new showdown.Converter();
-converter.setFlavor('github');
-
 let config = {};
 
 module.exports = {
@@ -727,17 +723,7 @@ async function mergePr(iid) {
 }
 
 function getPrBody(input) {
-  // Convert to HTML using GitHub-flavoured markdown as it is more feature-rich than GitLab's flavour
-  return converter
-    .makeHtml(input)
-    .replace(/Pull Request/g, 'Merge Request')
-    .replace(/PR/g, 'MR')
-    .replace(
-      `<p><details><br />\n<summary>Release Notes</summary></p>`,
-      '\n<details>\n\n<summary>Release Notes</summary>\n\n'
-    )
-    .replace('<p></details></p>', '\n</details>\n');
-  // TODO: set maximum length
+  return input.replace(/Pull Request/g, 'Merge Request').replace(/PR/g, 'MR');
 }
 
 // Generic File operations
diff --git a/lib/workers/pr/pr-body.js b/lib/workers/pr/pr-body.js
index ad164a4bcf5e6e7a670ead0b168f5198c8976ec2..a5d473c42fb1f60bca4164b9adc898be4ab4515d 100644
--- a/lib/workers/pr/pr-body.js
+++ b/lib/workers/pr/pr-body.js
@@ -194,26 +194,11 @@ async function getPrBody(config) {
     }
   }
   prBody = prBody.trim();
+  prBody = prBody.replace(/\n\n\n+/g, '\n\n');
 
   // Clean up double v's
   prBody = prBody.replace(/\bvv(\d)/g, 'v$1');
-
-  // Generic replacements/link-breakers
-
-  // Put a zero width space after every # followed by a digit
-  prBody = prBody.replace(/#(\d)/gi, '#&#8203;$1');
-  // Put a zero width space after every @ symbol to prevent unintended hyperlinking
-  prBody = prBody.replace(/@/g, '@&#8203;');
-  prBody = prBody.replace(/(`\[?@)&#8203;/g, '$1');
-  prBody = prBody.replace(/([a-z]@)&#8203;/gi, '$1');
-  prBody = prBody.replace(/([\s(])#(\d+)([)\s]?)/g, '$1#&#8203;$2$3');
-  // convert escaped backticks back to `
-  const backTickRe = /&#x60;([^/]*?)&#x60;/g;
-  prBody = prBody.replace(backTickRe, '`$1`');
-  prBody = prBody.replace(/`#&#8203;(\d+)`/g, '`#$1`');
-
-  prBody = prBody.replace(/\n\n\n+/g, '\n\n');
-
+  // Get platform-specific transformations
   prBody = platform.getPrBody(prBody);
   return prBody;
 }
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 00f33f59714ef99163346a585d1be52979de5312..e46dbb4abc66a427845ed73379e498490a553488 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -111,7 +111,6 @@
     "semver": "5.5.1",
     "semver-stable": "2.0.4",
     "semver-utils": "1.1.2",
-    "showdown": "1.8.6",
     "simple-git": "1.102.0",
     "slugify": "1.3.1",
     "traverse": "0.6.6",
diff --git a/test/platform/github/__snapshots__/index.spec.js.snap b/test/platform/github/__snapshots__/index.spec.js.snap
index 7920ea6181fa073c8315fba384c479fc24908779..11b8bb8a9d70a6d9c6326ce5779de5362b6c7381 100644
--- a/test/platform/github/__snapshots__/index.spec.js.snap
+++ b/test/platform/github/__snapshots__/index.spec.js.snap
@@ -444,7 +444,7 @@ Object {
 }
 `;
 
-exports[`platform/github getPrBody(input) returns updated pr body 1`] = `"<p><a href=\\"https://renovatebot.com/gh/foo/bar/issues/5\\">https://github.com/foo/bar/issues/5</a> plus also <a href=\\"https://renovatebot.com/gh/foo/bar/issues/5\\">a link</a></p>"`;
+exports[`platform/github getPrBody(input) returns updated pr body 1`] = `"https://github.com/foo/bar/issues/5 plus also [a link](https://renovatebot.com/gh/foo/bar/issues/5)"`;
 
 exports[`platform/github getPrFiles() returns files 1`] = `
 Array [
diff --git a/test/platform/gitlab/__snapshots__/index.spec.js.snap b/test/platform/gitlab/__snapshots__/index.spec.js.snap
index da1e9ba0e964547692a566b66ae5df25701b5487..9b4783ef58705f17edbc315c7aaaa4f0e7dd0387 100644
--- a/test/platform/gitlab/__snapshots__/index.spec.js.snap
+++ b/test/platform/gitlab/__snapshots__/index.spec.js.snap
@@ -243,7 +243,7 @@ Object {
 }
 `;
 
-exports[`platform/gitlab getPrBody(input) returns updated pr body 1`] = `"<p><a href=\\"https://github.com/foo/bar/issues/5\\">https://github.com/foo/bar/issues/5</a> plus also <a href=\\"https://github.com/foo/bar/issues/5\\">a link</a></p>"`;
+exports[`platform/gitlab getPrBody(input) returns updated pr body 1`] = `"https://github.com/foo/bar/issues/5 plus also [a link](https://github.com/foo/bar/issues/5)"`;
 
 exports[`platform/gitlab getPrFiles() returns files 1`] = `
 Array [
diff --git a/yarn.lock b/yarn.lock
index b3010cc612f75c4162cf51f59643365f3734bdd6..66de50dcf82e7dd44f153095739af589c505b696 100644
--- a/yarn.lock
+++ b/yarn.lock
@@ -5162,7 +5162,6 @@ npm@6.4.1:
     cmd-shim "~2.0.2"
     columnify "~1.5.4"
     config-chain "~1.1.11"
-    debuglog "*"
     detect-indent "~5.0.0"
     detect-newline "^2.1.0"
     dezalgo "~1.0.3"
@@ -5177,7 +5176,6 @@ npm@6.4.1:
     has-unicode "~2.0.1"
     hosted-git-info "^2.7.1"
     iferr "^1.0.2"
-    imurmurhash "*"
     inflight "~1.0.6"
     inherits "~2.0.3"
     ini "^1.3.5"
@@ -5190,14 +5188,8 @@ npm@6.4.1:
     libnpx "^10.2.0"
     lock-verify "^2.0.2"
     lockfile "^1.0.4"
-    lodash._baseindexof "*"
     lodash._baseuniq "~4.6.0"
-    lodash._bindcallback "*"
-    lodash._cacheindexof "*"
-    lodash._createcache "*"
-    lodash._getnative "*"
     lodash.clonedeep "~4.5.0"
-    lodash.restparam "*"
     lodash.union "~4.6.0"
     lodash.uniq "~4.5.0"
     lodash.without "~4.4.0"
@@ -5236,7 +5228,6 @@ npm@6.4.1:
     read-package-json "^2.0.13"
     read-package-tree "^5.2.1"
     readable-stream "^2.3.6"
-    readdir-scoped-modules "*"
     request "^2.88.0"
     retry "^0.12.0"
     rimraf "~2.6.2"
@@ -6718,12 +6709,6 @@ shellwords@^0.1.1:
   version "0.1.1"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/shellwords/-/shellwords-0.1.1.tgz#d6b9181c1a48d397324c84871efbcfc73fc0654b"
 
-showdown@1.8.6:
-  version "1.8.6"
-  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/showdown/-/showdown-1.8.6.tgz#91ea4ee3b7a5448aaca6820a4e27e690c6ad771c"
-  dependencies:
-    yargs "^10.0.3"
-
 signal-exit@^3.0.0, signal-exit@^3.0.2:
   version "3.0.2"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/signal-exit/-/signal-exit-3.0.2.tgz#b5fdc08f1287ea1178628e415e25132b73646c6d"
@@ -7859,35 +7844,12 @@ yargs-parser@^10.1.0:
   dependencies:
     camelcase "^4.1.0"
 
-yargs-parser@^8.1.0:
-  version "8.1.0"
-  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/yargs-parser/-/yargs-parser-8.1.0.tgz#f1376a33b6629a5d063782944da732631e966950"
-  dependencies:
-    camelcase "^4.1.0"
-
 yargs-parser@^9.0.2:
   version "9.0.2"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/yargs-parser/-/yargs-parser-9.0.2.tgz#9ccf6a43460fe4ed40a9bb68f48d43b8a68cc077"
   dependencies:
     camelcase "^4.1.0"
 
-yargs@^10.0.3:
-  version "10.1.2"
-  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/yargs/-/yargs-10.1.2.tgz#454d074c2b16a51a43e2fb7807e4f9de69ccb5c5"
-  dependencies:
-    cliui "^4.0.0"
-    decamelize "^1.1.1"
-    find-up "^2.1.0"
-    get-caller-file "^1.0.1"
-    os-locale "^2.0.0"
-    require-directory "^2.1.1"
-    require-main-filename "^1.0.1"
-    set-blocking "^2.0.0"
-    string-width "^2.0.0"
-    which-module "^2.0.0"
-    y18n "^3.2.1"
-    yargs-parser "^8.1.0"
-
 yargs@^11.0.0:
   version "11.0.0"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/yargs/-/yargs-11.0.0.tgz#c052931006c5eee74610e5fc0354bedfd08a201b"